I have a toddler so I'm entitled to my Dad Jokes.

At Diplomatic Solutions Armory, we don't take ourselves seriously but we do take the 2nd Amendment seriously and we hold the ideals it defends very close to heart. 

Ratified on December 15, 1791, today the 2nd Amendment has receives great scrutiny and is the source of great controversy. 

First and foremost, what should be recognized is that the Second Amendment, like all parts of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, does not in fact grant you a right. It guarantees you a right. In essence, it secures a right that the framers of the Constitution considered to be inherent to you as a person. You would have a right to keep and bear arms whether any government recognized it or not, and those countries that do not recognize that their citizens possess such a right, do them an injustice.

Detractors of firearm rights typically raise various claims and disputes to deny the validity or intent of its words. Some claim that the initial clause, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," guarantees arms and the right to bear them only to the National Guard, this being considered by them to be the modern successor to the militia. 

However, this is illogical and not supported by history. The militia of the 18th century, when the Constitution was written, was comprised of citizens, not professional soldiers as the National Guard of today is. The militia was the power of the people, comprised of all able bodied citizens who could take up arms. Although in times of war they could be more formalized, in the eyes of the framers, the militia existed continuously. As long as there were citizens, and they were armed, there was a militia. 

The idea that the purpose of the framers in drafting the Second Amendment was to preserve the government's ability to bear arms is illogical. The whole purpose of the Bill of Rights is to place limitations on the government, not to empower it. The powers of the government, including the power of Congress to raise an Army had already been codified well before the addition of the Bill of Rights in the previous articles that had already been ratified. 

A full reading of the text, including the latter clause, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," makes clear that the militia are the people, and the people are the militia. 

The Second Amendment is a civil right guaranteed to the people. Just as the right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and the freedom to worship without government interference are enshrined in the 1st Amendment as civil rights, so the right to bear arms is protected by the 2nd. It comes second to those rights in the former, because it exists to support them, to bolster them, to protect them. 

The framers, well versed in English Common Law, recognized both an individual and a collective right of defense. Having just fought a war to rid themselves of an oppressive government, they wanted to ensure that the successive government of these United States had a final check against tyranny if all other checks and balances of the Republic should fail. Additionally, the framers were well aware of the dangers and uncertainty faced by the nation they had just established on the frontier of the known world at the time. 

Though many gun control advocates would appeal that guns are an unnecessary nuisance in the safety of modern civilization, we do not agree. Society and peace is maintained through effort and when it stumbles and falters, safety reverts to being the concern and responsibility of rugged and self-reliant individuals. Those who are ill-equipped and ill-prepared are left in a bad way, whether the situation is a lone home invader under darkness, or looting and chaos following a hurricane.