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.


The original intent and purpose of the Second Amendment was not to not grant theright to arms , but to preserve and guarantee a pre-existing right of individuals to keep and bear arms.The amendment does emphasizes the need for a militia but in no way does it mandate membership in any militia, let alone a well-regulated one, as a prerequisite for exercising the right to keep arms.

The purpose may be collective{a militia is not a private army}But the Second Amendment was intended to preserve and guarantee an individual right.This in no way transform the right into a "collective right." The militia clause is a declarative. A whereas,--not a therefore declaration of purpose, and the method the founders chose and wished was to preserving the people's right to keep and bear arms , in-part, ensuring the continuation of a well-regulated militia.

There is no contrary evidence in writings of the Founding Fathers,supreme court decisions before the 20th century or the early American legal commentators that indicating that the Second Amendment was intended to apply solely to members of an active militia.

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"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." [...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
(from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "the Younger," circa 4 BC-65 AD