Constitutional Law Commons^™

Understanding The Second Amendment, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

“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.” These might be the most awkwardly assembled twentyseven words in American political history. Much like reading James Joyce’s FINNEGANS WAKE or William Faulkner’s THE SOUND AND THE FURY, the Second Amendment takes repeated review to grasp even basic understanding.1 Though few teachers would accept such garbled prose from students, early Americas accepted this so-called sentence as part of our Bill of Rights -- the most important protections granted to states and individuals from …