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INTERPRETING THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT 
by Bernadine Smith

If you ever lose your guns, you are past history! This 
amendment is unrepealable.

The framers of the Constitution were quite skillful in the 
use and drafting of the English Language. By putting the 
Militia at the forefront of the sentence which composes the 
Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights, they stressed the 
importance of the collective use of the right to arms. The 
collective right used in this manner, has equal status with 
the individual aspects of this absolute right.

	When the 1787 Constitution was ready to be submitted 
to the governors of the states for ratification, Patrick 
Henry, the immortal voice for liberty, lectured daily against 
it in the Virginia State House for three weeks, criticizing 
the Constitution, warning that it has been written "as if only 
good men will take office!" He asked what they would do when 
evil men took office. "When evil men take office, the whole 
gang will be in collusion," he declared, "and they will keep 
the people in utter ignorance and steal their liberty by 
ambuscade!" (Entrapment from a concealed position.)

	Patrick Henry asked, "What resistance could be made 
if the people have no guns?"... "Your guns are gone!"... "Your 
laws on treason are a sham and a mockery because of their 
mutual implication". Henry told the Continental Congress that 
a major reason for his objections to the Constitution was that 
"it does not leave us the means for defending our rights or 
waging war against tyrants!" He declared, "This Constitution 
will trample on your fallen liberty!" Patrick Henry warned that 
the new federal government was being given "too much money and 
too much power", and that it would end up "consolidating all 
power unto itself", convert us "into one solid empire". Amongst 
other things, one of the areas upon which he felt the need for 
modification and limitation was the use of the treaty power, an 
area in which he predicted that "the President would lead in the 
treason". His fervor and graphic descriptions of "execrable 
tyranny" which would befall the people if they could not take 
arms against evil men who might take office, placed Patrick Henry 
in the forefront of the effort to protect the natural rights of 
the people. He wanted the immediate opening of another 
Constitutional Convention to strengthen particular parts of the 
Constitution. That suggestion not being workable, he proclaimed, 
"The least you can do is guard it with a Bill of Rights!"

	Young James Madison, at the time, saw no need for a Bill 
of Rights, since the new federal government was to exercise only 
those powers which were delegated to them. Patrick Henry thus 
said, "Let Mr. Madison tell me when did liberty ever exist when 
the sword and the purse were given up from the people? Unless a 
miracle shall interpose, no nation ever did, nor ever can retain 
its liberty after the loss of the sword and the purse." At first, 
James Madison could not ever envision the possibility of tyranny 
happening under this Constitution. However, Madison was later 
blocked from taking a seat in the first Senate. That blow to a man 
who had been the Secretary of the Constitutional Convention, caused 
Madison to re-think the probability of danger. His promise to follow 
through with a proposed Bill of Rights garnered support for him to 
take a seat in the first House of Representatives. So it was that 
the Bill of Rights, palladium of man's natural rights, was finalized 
on December 15, 1791 and it became the un-revocable and superior part 
of the Constitution of the United States.
	Patrick Henry placed all his hopes upon the vigilance of the 
people of the future to protect the liberty that he helped win in the 
War of Independence, by their standing behind the Bill of Rights, 
forbidding any infringement or curtailment of not only the Second 
Amendment, but of the sworn oath taken "to suport and defend the 
Constitution".

	Thomas Jefferson, our Third President, supported the idea 
of a Bill of Rights, confirming the authority of the people by 
saying: "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to 
keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against 
tyranny in government."
	May the words that Patrick Henry spoke always be heeded through 
all the ages to come, as he cautioned:
	"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect 
everyone who approaches that jewel! Unfortunately, nothing will preserve 
it but downright force, and whenever you give up that force, you are 
inevitably ruined!"