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The Entire Article: http://www.jpfo.org/sixaboutsecond.htm

Fall 2001 The Bill of Rights Sentinel

The Six Things Americans Should Know
About the Second Amendment

by Richard W. Stevens

The text of the Second Amendment:

    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.

FIRST: The Second Amendment protects an individual right that existed 
before the creation of any government. The Declaration of Independence 
made clear that all human beings are endowed with certain unalienable 
rights, and that governments are created to protect those rights.

A. The unalienable right to freedom from violent harm, and the right to 
self-defense, both exist before and outside of secular government.

    1. Torah: Exodus 22:2.

    2. Talmud: Jewish law set forth in the Talmud states, �If someone
    comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him.� (Talmud, Tractate
    Sanhedrin. 1994, 2, 72a; The Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth.
    1990, 58a, 62b).

    3. Roman Catholic Doctrine: Christian doctrine has long asserted the
    right and duty of self defense. �Someone who defends his life is not
    guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal
    blow.� See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1994, sections 2263-65
    (citing and quoting Thomas Aquinas).

    4. Protestant Doctrine: Individual has personal and unalienable
    right to self-defense, even against government. Samuel Rutherford,
    Lex, Rex [1644] 1982, pp. 159-166, 183-185 (Sprinkle Publications
    edition.) Jesus advised his disciples to arm themselves in view of
    likely persecution. Luke 22:36.

B. John Locke�s Second Treatise of Government (1690) aimed at reforming 
Britain�s monarchy and parliamentary system and limiting the power of 
government, and profoundly influenced the Founders and all Western 
Civilization. John Locke explained that civil government properly exists 
to more effectively protect the rights that all individuals have in the 
�state of nature.� The individuals have the rights to life, liberty, and 
property. They give civil government the power over themselves only to 
the extent that it better protects those rights. Thomas Jefferson, 
author of the Declaration of Independence, specifically declared that 
the ideas of John Locke�s Second Treatise were �generally approved by 
the citizens of the United States.� Jefferson mandated that Locke�s 
Second Treatise be taught in the University of Virginia.

C. Christian religious thinkers, such as Samuel Rutherford (in Lex, Rex, 
1644) argued that man�s rights come from G-d. Using Biblical principles 
and examples, they argued against the notion that kings ruled by divine 
right. To be legitimate authorities, all governments must uphold man�s 
rights and do justice. Otherwise, the people owe a lawless and 
tyrannical ruler no allegiance at all.

D. Cicero, Rome�s leading orator, had early argued that the right to 
self-defense was natural and inborn, and not a creation of the 
government. The right to use weapons was a necessary part of the right 
to self-defense � any view to the contrary was silly nonsense. [Stephen 
P. Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of A Constitutional 
Right (1984), p. 17, fn 76-77.]

E. The right to keep and bear arms simply implements the unalienable 
right to individual self-defense against aggression of any kind. The 
Second Amendment refers to �the right of the people� (not the state) as 
a pre-existing right that government must respect.

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