B.2(e). Personal Security and Self-Defense

Every Person has the Right to Personal security and lawful self-defense. This right includes the right to bear arms.

Since colonial times, we have asserted the right to defend ourselves, our homes, and our families. Our own rights to life and bodily autonomy imply this right, and here it is explicitly stated. Each person may defend themselves. That right includes the right to own, possess, carry, and use arms for the purpose of self-defense. While there has always been tension between the right to bear arms and the danger that right can imply, the basic right has been a part of our understanding since Colonial times. In fact, it was the attempted seizure of weapons at Lexington and Concord that led to the Revolutionary War.

The Second Amendment of the Constitution of 1789 begins with the phrase, “A well-regulated militia.” [1] That wording has sparked a lot of debate. The wording here simply acknowledges that arms may be used in lawful self-defense. The modern-day militia is the National Guard, not an everyday Joe.

Congress may make laws allowing for the suspension or regulation of this Right, but only in carefully and narrowly defined circumstances. Those circumstances cannot include religious or political beliefs. Such regulation must exist solely to protect the Natural Rights of others—particularly the Rights to Life and Bodily Autonomy—and must use the least restrictive means available, with its scope, application, and purpose clearly defined.

Because this right touches not only the individual’s rights to life and bodily autonomy, but those of others, as well, it can’t be absolute. There has to be a mechanism to regulate responsible use and respect for the rights of others. This clause allows Congress to have that power. Congress can legislate

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[1] U.S. Const. amend. II.