Gun controls and the 2nd Amendment living in coexistence
On December 16, 1689 an Act of Parliament created the English Bill of Rights. Amongst these rights were: Protestant subjects "may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions, and allowed by law". 100 years later the US Constitution would also include a Bill of Rights, and its 2 nd amendment would state: 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. There is little debate that our Bill of Rights were strongly based on the English Bill of Rights. But the English Bill of Rights was as much about righting the wrongs of the monarchy and establishing Parliament’s power while the American counterpart was about protecting citizens from tyrannical government. Nonetheless, when it came to guns, the English Bill of Rights was specifically addressing the 1671Game Act that forbid Protestants from owning guns. This new Bill of Rights would ...