Is Gun Ownership a Right?

[BjornF16]

...The idea of a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state is very clear. And i agree that it is indeed why Madison included it!

Ummm...Madison didn't submit what became the 2A in the form it exists as adopted...it was re-arranged by committee.

Here is the text as submitted by Madison on June 8, 1789:

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.”

- Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, Charlene Bangs Bickford ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), vol. 4, at 9-10.



So I would say that Madison, in fact, MEANT the right of the people to keep and bear arms was not dependent upon being in the militia (which is also supported by the writings of the day), but rather the militia draws from the population who are very familiar with the use of arms.