Law Commons^™

Background To The Second Amendment, John Thomas Nichols

Dissertations and Theses

Research into the background of the Second Amendment is hampered by its relationship to the current highly emotional debate over gun control. Many otherwise useful secondary sources either ignore the issue completely or give accounts which reflect the controversies of the twentieth century rather than those of the eighteenth. Fortunately, however, the Americans of the revolutionary era wrote extensively about the subject.

With independence, the Americans were faced with the problem of organizing and controlling a defense establishment. The new nation was virtually defenseless: the

Continental Army was disbanded and the militia, after years of neglect, emasculated. During the decade …