Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment

This article explores the connection between suggested handgun prohibition or confiscation and the Second Amendment by first resolving the controversy between the individual right view and the exclusively states’ rights view. (The states’ rights view is erroneous.) The article then analyzes the history of the amendment’s proposal and ratification, the philosophical and historical background that gave rise to the Founders’ belief in the necessity for an armed populace, and the contemporary understanding of the Second Amendment. The article then considers the amendment’s subsequent judicial interpretations, and the question of its incorporation against the states, before returning to constitutional limitations on the right to keep and bear arms.