The Second Amendment is bitterly contested in modern America. Does the amendment recognize an individual right to own guns for sport and self-defense or a collective right, exercised through a militia, or citizen guard, to possess firearms for defending the nation? The framers clearly believed the right was important, but what they meant by it has become a source of deep division.
Guns
The meaning of the Second Amendment has long been debated. In two rulings, the Supreme Court has decided that an individual has the right to own a gun for personal use and that the Second Amendment “applies equally to the federal government and the states.”
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