"may have arms for their defence"

The second amendment deals with the question of a trained militia, and the right of the people to bear arms,--a right involving the latent power of resistance to tyrannical government. From prehistoric days right to bear arms seems to have been the badge of a Teutonic freeman, and closely associated with his political privileges. Such armed freemen made up the military host of the tribe. During Saxon times in England, there was a fyrd, or national militia, 1 service in which was one of the three duties--trinoda necessitas--to which every alodial proprietor was subject. This is met in full vigour long after the Norman Conquest, working its way through the superstratum of feudalism. It continued side by side with the feudal system, until, under Henry III .and Edward I., the two were united in a general national armament. By the law known as the Assize of Arms in 1181, every freeman was required to provide himself with a doublet of mail, iron skull-cap, and lance. In the reign of Queen Mary, this law was altered to provide for arms of a more modern sort. 2 James I. abrogated it. 3 But although the militia languished for awhile, as the standing army grew in efficiency, it was restored to vigour in 1757. The Bill of Rights provided: "The subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence, suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law." 4 Upon this is based the second amendment to the Constitution, which reads: "A well-regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." {5} And concerning it, Judge Cooley remarks: "It was adopted, with some modification and enlargement, from the English Bill of Rights of 1688, where it stood as a protest against arbitrary action of the late dynasty in disarming the people, and as a pledge of the new rulers, that this tyrannical action should cease. The right declared was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation of arbitrary power by rulers, and as a necessary and efficient means of regaining rights temporarily overturned by usurpation." {6}

1 The fyrd the armed folkmoot of each shire, was originally the only military organization known to the English.
2 4 and 5 Phil. and Mary, c. 2 and c. 3.
3 I Jac. c. 25, ss 46.
4 I Will. and Mary, Sess. 2, c. 2. Blackstone remarks that this declaration providing for the possession of arms "is a public allowance, under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanction of society and the laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression."--Commentaries, I. 154.
{5} The convention of New Hampshire which acted on the adoption of the national Constitution, proposed as an amendment: "Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are, or have been, in actual rebellion." The conventions of Virginia and New York proposed: "That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state"; and "that any person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, ought to be exempted, upon payment of an equivalent to employ another in his stead ."
{6} Principles of Constitutional Law, 270.

{Foot note numbering altered from original to provide better clarity.}

[SOURCES OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO COLONIAL AND ENGLISH HISTORY BY C. ELLIS STEVENS, LL.D., D.C.L. F.S.A. (EDINBURGH) SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED New York MACMILLAN AND CO. AND LONDON 1894 All rights reserved. Pgs. 222-24]