ABSTRACT
The fabled “right to bear arms” found in the Bill of Rights' Second Amendment casts a lengthy shadow over gun policy and politics. This chapter examines the origins, evolution, and legal and mythical interpretations of this right. Modern gun rights advocates stress the individual nature of this right, yet the amendment cannot be understood without also including the first half of the sentence, referencing “a well-regulated militia, necessary to the security of a free state.” The American Revolution placed militias front and center; debates over the amendment from the First Congress and early court rulings explicate its traditional, militia-based meaning in law. Yet a new gun rights movement revived and reorganized this right, culminating in two important and controversial Supreme Court decisions in 2008 and 2022. Yet even in its current incarnation, the right protected is subject to regulation and limitation.
