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== Individual or Collective Right? ==

== Individual or Collective Right? ==

For several decades, the lower federal courts had interpreted the Second Amendment as protecting merely a collective right of state militias.<ref>http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/35finalpartone.htm</ref> However, the [[U.S Supreme Court]] has always called it an individual right. The 2008 Supreme Court decision of ''[[District of Columbia v. Heller]]'' ruled 5–4 that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. This decision was expanded upon in ''[[McDonald v. Chicago]]'' two years later, which ruled that Second Amendment applies to protect individual rights against state and city laws also.

One of the first people to advance the notion that the Second Amendment was never for individuals but was instead a "collective right", was [[Warren Burger]], who in 1990 wrote an article in Parade Magazine arguing a limited context based on the needs of only a state, not individuals.<ref>[https://guncite.com/burger.html The Right To Bear Arms], By Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States (1969-86), Parade Magazine, January 14, 1990, page 4</ref><ref>[https://buckscountyherald.com/stories/no-confusion-in-meaning-of-the-second-amendment,10169 No confusion in meaning of the Second Amendment]</ref>  Burger's rationale was never a part of official Supreme Court opinions nor was it a part of a long and well-researched historical work with deep citations and long quotes.  Rather, the entire article is roughly 900 words and happily takes several facts out of context.<ref>[https://davekopel.org/2A/Mags/crburger.htm]</ref>

 

Afterwards, lower federal courts became much more comfortable interpreting the Second Amendment as protecting merely a collective right of state militias now that they had the weight of a former Chief Justice lending power to such claims.<ref>http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/35finalpartone.htm</ref> However, the [[U.S Supreme Court]] has always called it an individual right. The 2008 Supreme Court decision of ''[[District of Columbia v. Heller]]'' ruled 5–4 that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. This decision was expanded upon in ''[[McDonald v. Chicago]]'' two years later, which ruled that Second Amendment applies to protect individual rights against state and city laws also.

Many pithy quotes by [[Founding Fathers]] support the Second Amendment right of individuals.<ref>https://www.concealedcarry.com/gun-quotes-from-our-founding-fathers-2nd-amendment/</ref>

Many pithy quotes by [[Founding Fathers]] support the Second Amendment right of individuals.<ref>https://www.concealedcarry.com/gun-quotes-from-our-founding-fathers-2nd-amendment/</ref>