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There were no British soldiers in the American colonies for 130 years. Colonists distrusted soldiers due to stories of brutality against civilians by soldiers under orders of tyrannical kings in Europe. They most feared the housing of soldiers in their homes. Colonials provided for their own defense by organizing themselves into local militias, training with their weapons, and serving when called. They envisioned their militias as protection against a military state as well as protection against native peoples.
In 1754 the French and Indian War began. Almost 20,000 British soldiers arrived and fought alongside the militia members for nine years. When the war ended, not all soldiers went home. Parliament required the colonies to supply housing for them, but there were no barracks. Soldiers were placed in inns, barns, and sometimes in private homes. Parliament then imposed taxes to pay for the war. Colonials resisted and protested. Parliament sent more soldiers, and violence erupted between soldiers and local people.
Resistance became revolution and war, then independence. In 1791 the Congress of this new nation wrote a Bill of Rights as amendments to the Constitution. Two amendments were written to ensure domestic tranquility and to foster democracy by preventing a military state.
The Third Amendment stated: "No Soldier shall, in times of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." Though obsolete today, this amendment was cited by the Second Court of Appeals in Engblom v. Carey (1982) to establish that any resident has a legal expectation to privacy in their residence and a legal right to exclude others from their home.
Owning a gun and serving in a militia were part of everyday life in the 18th Century. Even though the Constitution gave Congress the authority to establish an army and navy, members of Congress wrote the Second Amendment to guarantee individuals the right to own and use guns and to preserve the militias. The Amendment stated: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Times changed, and before the start of the Civil War, the United States had a professional, full-time army as capable as any European army, and militias were being phased out.
Today a group of citizens cannot stand up against the American army with their vast arsenal of sophisticated weapons. We rely on the checks and balances in our governmental structure, free speech, and democratic elections to protect us from a potential tyrant.
In 2008 the Supreme Court held that the right to possess weapons for self-defense was central to the Second Amendment. But this right, like other rights, was not unlimited. They confirmed as constitutional "presumptively lawful regulations," including prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in schools and government buildings, and laws imposing conditions on the commercial sale of firearms. The Court further explained that the amendment did not protect short-barreled shotguns and other weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.
Our right-to-bear-arms heritage has filled our country with a proliferation of guns, unique in the world. We now contend with homicides and suicides by guns in homes and mass shootings by assault weapons. The first in-depth examination of the Second Amendment was not comprehensive. We still must find a way to balance liberty with the promotion of domestic tranquility.
Jacki Richey is a member of Living Democracy: Engaging Citizens a local citizen group.
Our mission is to inform and educate the Mid-Ohio Valley about how government works on the local, state and federal levels and how citizens can be involved to make our democracy work. Join us the third Wed. of each month. livingdemocracymov@gmail.com and facebook/speak foryourselfvote and Youtube channel Living Democracy.