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发帖数: 10518 | 1 The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution
protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms and was adopted on
December 15, 1791, as part of the first ten amendments contained in the Bill
of Rights.[1][2][3][4] The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled
that the right belongs to individuals,[5][6] while also ruling that the
right is not unlimited and does not prohibit all regulation of either
firearms or similar devices.[7] State and local governments are limited to
the same extent as the federal government from infringing this right per the
incorporation of the Bill of Rights.
The Second Amendment was based partially on the right to keep and bear arms
in English common law and was influenced by the English Bill of Rights of
1689. Sir William Blackstone described this right as an auxiliary right,
supporting the natural rights of self-defense, resistance to oppression, and
the civic duty to act in concert in defense of the state.[8]
In United States v. Cruikshank (1876), the Supreme Court of the United
States ruled that, "The right to bear arms is not granted by the
Constitution; neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for
its existence" and limited the scope of the Second Amendment's protections
to the federal government.[9] In United States v. Miller (1939), the Supreme
Court ruled that the Second Amendment did not protect weapon types not
having a "reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a
well regulated militia."[10][11]
In the twenty-first century, the amendment has been subjected to renewed
academic inquiry and judicial interest.[11] In District of Columbia v.
Heller (2008), the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision that held
the amendment protects an individual right to possess and carry firearms.[12
][13] In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the Court clarified its earlier
decisions that limited the amendment's impact to a restriction on the
federal government, expressly holding that the Due Process Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment against state and
local governments.[14] In Caetano v. Massachusetts (2016), the Supreme Court
reiterated its earlier rulings that "the Second Amendment extends, prima
facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that
were not in existence at the time of the founding" and that its protection
is not limited to "only those weapons useful in warfare".[15]
Despite these decisions, the debate between various organizations regarding
gun control and gun rights continues.[16] |
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