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What is the second amendment2/12/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() In the 12 years since that decision, scholars have gained access to a new research tool that some hope can settle this debate: corpus linguistics. Read: The Second Amendment does not transcend all others The dissenting opinion, by Justice John Paul Stevens, intimated that the phrase keep and bear arms was a fixed term of art that always referred to militia service. But bear arms by itself-the wording used in the Second Amendment-could sometimes refer to an individual right. The majority opinion, by Justice Antonin Scalia, concluded, among other things, that the phrase bear arms against would always refer to service in a militia. Heller, the Supreme Court was sharply divided. In a landmark 2008 decision on this question, District of Columbia v. Does this two-century-old text, then, mean that Americans today have a right to gun ownership and use? The amendment itself contains 27 words: “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.” This provision references both the collective right of a militia and an individual right. What does the Second Amendment mean? This question is at the center of one of the most divisive debates in modern American constitutional law. ![]()
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