Reply #12: What has the Supreme Court said [View All]

about the right to keep and bear arms of the second amendemnt?

http://www.davekopel.com/2A/lawrev/35finalpartone.htm




Has the right to keep and bear arms been interpreted as an individual right?

Yes, from the earliest court cases. Bliss and Nunn were strong statemnts of an individual right to arms as per state constitutions. Even Aymette, which stressed the collective purpose of the Tenn. right to bear arms provision, none-the-less interpreted the right to keep and bear arms as a right of the citizen -not a right of the state. Furthermore Aymette said that the government could only place restrictions on how arms were borne and could not prohibit bearing arms completely(as DC now does).



The right to keep and bear arms has been regarded as an individual right from the earliest cases, state and federal, and it should remain so.