The Second Amendment was not enacted to provide a check on government tyranny; rather, it was written to assure the Southern states that Congress would not undermine the slave system by using its newly acquired constitutional authority over the militia to disarm the state militia and thereby destroy the South's principal instrument of slave control. In effect, the Second Amendment supplemented the slavery compromise made at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and obliquely codified in other constitutional provisions."
From WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate: "The 'Right to Bear Arms'... Against Slave Revolts?" by Steve Goss
law.rwu.edu
For decades, many scholars and courts interpreted the amendment as only preserving states’ authority to keep militias, which would mean that the right to have firearms was linked to militia service.
But in
District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Supreme Court reached a broader interpretation, finding that the Second Amendment gave individuals a right to have guns—unconnected to any militia service—and to use them for traditionally legal purposes like self-defense.
Most U.S. citizens have a Second Amendment right to own and carry firearms, but courts have upheld some gun control. Learn what 2nd amendment limitations exist.
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