ECU speaker offers overview of Second Amendment

Ada The language of the Second Amendment is simple: 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.

Those 27 words are more complicated than they appear and have sparked a national debate over what the amendment means.

Dr. Paul Collins, associate professor of political science at the University of North Texas, spoke about the Second Amendment and its future during a lecture Tuesday at East Central University. He gave students a quick overview of the amendment, summarized key U.S. Supreme Court cases on the subject and predicted how the amendment would fare in the future.

Collins said the first clause of the amendment leads people to believe that it does not protect peoples right to carry firearms unless they serve in a branch of the U.S. military. But he said people who zero in on the second clause conclude that the amendment protects an individual right to carry guns.

For those that put a lot of faith in the preface, it seems to suggest theres no individual right to keep and bear arms, he said. For those that focus on the operative clause and sort of set aside the preface, set aside that justification clause, that gets you to the individual-right interpretation.

ECU hosted the lecture to celebrate Constitution Day, which commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The colleges Rothbaum Lecture series is funded by an endowment established by the late Julian Rothbaum.

Key cases

The U.S. Supreme Court first tackled Second Amendment issues in 1939, when the court upheld a federal law banning shipments of sawed-off shotguns in interstate commerce. The court declined to strike down the law on Second Amendment grounds without evidence that sawed-off shotguns were linked to preserving a well-regulated militia.

Collins said the courts holding in U.S. v. Miller was the law of the land until 2008, when the justices heard arguments in District of Columbia v. Heller. That case centered on whether the District of Columbia could legally ban handguns.

The Heller decision struck down the districts ban on handguns and upheld an individual right to use firearms for legal purposes, such as self-defense in the home. But the court also said that certain regulations such as barring felons from owning guns are legitimate.

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ECU speaker offers overview of Second Amendment