The Second Amendment: A Shield of Freedom with Gun Control

Do you know what function the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution actually serves? No, it is not so that people can go hunting or protect themselves against personal assault. Neither is it a stupid, brainless provision that some lamebrain slipped into the Constitution.

Like a shield of freedom, it is one of the primary reasons that the United States Constitution still stands.

As one who is not a gun owner, I treasure the Second Amendment. It is one of our best safeguards against tyranny, not from foreign governments, but from our own.

This amendment reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

The militia written of here is a volunteer army that basically provides its own weapons. That is, these are soldiers who are already armed, who already have their own guns.

In "The Federalist Papers," the authors wrote of concerns that a standing army could lead to tyranny (loss of freedom), so the Second Amendment was conceived in such a way that the U.S. could have an army at need, and would not have to have a large standing army. This was so that the national government would not threaten our freedom. (Trust me; it's in there.)

There are historical examples of governments wanting to tighten their controls over the people, so they went out and disarmed the people (like "the sword hunt" in Japan), or made it illegal for them to own weapons (there are examples in England's history). That made it much easier for them to keep freedom from the people, or take it away.

Because of the Second Amendment, no one like Adolf Hitler can get the government and the military of the United States on his side and turn them against the people, like Hitler turned on the Jews. The people have too much firepower, because of the Second Amendment. Most of the time, the Jews had no way to fight back. In most places, they did not own guns.

While today we are no longer concerned about a standing army (we have gotten used to it, and it is a relatively small one), the Second Amendment is still one of the most important safeguards that we have against tyranny.