Second Amendment

 

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

Bang bang, I shot you down

Bang bang, you hit the ground

Bang bang, that awful sound

Bang bang, I used to shoot you down.

What can Congress do to control gun violence?

The Second Amendment  in its entirety reads : “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.”   The state in question here is the United States.  A well regulated militia is NOT any group of individuals calling themselves a militia.  The Militia is discussed in Constitution  Article 1, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16, which read:

Clause 15. The Congress shall have Power * * * To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.

Clause 16. The Congress shall have Power * * * To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.

The states have the power over the militia, but its training can be prescribed by Congress.  That militia currently goes by the name of the National Guard of each state.  In this context, the ability of the states to arm their National Guard may not be infringed.  It does not seem to say that states can not use other means of providing arms to its National Guards, such as having arms stored in a National Guard Armory. An individual citizen acting on his own, is not a militia, and thus does not appear to be covered by the Second Amendment. 

At the time the Constitution was written, members of a state National Guard, i.e. Militia, were expected to supply their own arms.  This is no longer the case.  No one expects an individual to have a Blackhawk helicopter in their possession that will be brought to arm the National Guard.  Why then is the expectation that guns owned by individuals are of any use, or interest, to the well regulated Militia, i.e. the National Guard. If those guns are not of interest to the National Guard, then they do not seem to be protected by the Second Amendment

If Congress requires that in the state training of Militias, arms are properly controlled and supervised, and no member of this well regulated militia should not have arms in his possession without such training, this does seem to be within the power of Congress. And then maybe my baby would not be able to shoot me down.