The Essential Second Amendment

The Essential

Second Amendment

Helping Americans understand and defend the Second Amendment

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The right of the people to keep and bear arms, enshrined in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, is centered not on hunting or sport shooting but on the natural right of self-defense. It gives “teeth” to the promises of liberty, ensuring that attempts to reduce our natural rights to mere dead letters may be met with meaningful resistance. Download the eBook here.

Featured

The Origins of the Second Amendment

2 min read

Major Threats to the Second Amendment

1 min read

About

The Right of the People

3 min read

History’s Forgotten Well-Armed Women

1 min read

The Well-Regulated Militia

3 min read

Second Amendment Myths and Misinformation

4 min read

The Essential Second Amendment

Armed Revolution

Armed revolution can be a political community’s use of lethal force to collectively defend its members from an oppressive government.

How Does an Armed People Secure a Free State?

A well-armed citizenry acts as a major check on the ability of would-be tyrants, enabling the people to forcibly resist oppression.

Koreatown

Did you know that in many cities, the average police response time to the highest priority emergency calls is still over 10 minutes?

The Racist Roots of Gun Control

While it may be the case that most modern gun control advocates harbor no racial animosity, the result of their policies is to disarm many minority Americans.

The Second Amendment at the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has been slow to build out a legal framework for analyzing the Second Amendment and did not undertake an in-depth review of a Second Amendment case until 2008.

What Types of Arms Are Protected?

At the time of ratification of the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, civilians routinely kept firearms in their own homes that could be used for a variety of lawful purposes at the same time.

Additional Resources

Learn More!

Find more information on the Second Amendment with these additional resources.

Defensive Gun Uses in the U.S.

Browse the Defensive Gun Use Database

All of the law-abiding citizens featured in this database successfully defended their liberties, lives, or livelihoods with the lawful use of a firearm. These cases are not based on hearsay, but on verifiable reports found through public sources.

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