On Thursday, June 26th, the US Supreme Court handed down a ruling on Washington DC’s total ban on handguns. They found it unconstitutional because the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right.
The individual vs. collective right argument was central to Washington DC’s gun ban. The city enacted the ban with the notion that the 2nd Amendment represented the right of a state to arm a militia. The District of Columbia isn’t part of any state.
The militia and collective right arguments gun-control advocates have always fallen back on are specious, for those who only give the Constitution a casual glance.
The Second Amendment is only one simple sentence that concludes with very strong and clear language, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." It’s the beginning of the sentence gun control advocates have focused on, however: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state…" It is this wording that is often used to justify the infringing of the people’s rights. Gun control advocates claim that the amendment is obsolete in the era of a technologically advanced, standing military, or that the amendment only pertains to organized militias, calling into question what constitutes a militia. This line of reasoning fails to take the sentence as a whole.
The Second Amendment doesn't read, "If a well regulated militia is necessary for the security of a free state..." That a militia (an armed citizenry) is necessary for freedom isn't a caveat for the right to own arms. Rather, it is a simple expression of what is. Likewise, the declaration, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" is a direct, absolute statement. Shall not. The word unless is distinctly absent.
The key questions revolving around the Second Amendment have traditionally been who has the right to keep and bear arms? What is the militia? For what purpose are the citizens to be armed?
The answers can be found in the writings of the framers themselves. Studying the Federalist papers and other statements made by the framers during constitutional debates makes the issue very clear. Every law-abiding citizen has the right to keep and bear arms. The militia is every person. The citizens are to be armed for defense of their country, defense of themselves against crime and as a last resort to defend themselves against their own government should it turn to tyranny.
Now that the Supreme Court has acknowledged that the 2nd Amendment is indeed an individual right, local governments will have a much more difficult time defending overreaching gun control laws. The decision overturning Washington DC’s gun ban will reverberate across all the states.