Argument: 2nd Amendment conferred an individual right to defend against various historical threats

Argument: 2nd Amendment conferred individual right to defend against various threats

Supporting quotes

• Oral arguments in DC vs. Heller. March 19th, 2007 – “MR. DELLINGER: — the second clause, the phrase ‘keep and bear arms,’ when ‘bear arms’ is referred to — is referred to in a military context, that is so that even if you left aside —

JUSTICE KENNEDY: It had nothing to do with the concern of the remote settler to defend himself and his family against hostile Indian tribes and outlaws, wolves and bears and grizzlies and things like that?

MR. DELLINGER: That is not the discourse that is part of the Second Amendment. And when you read the debates, the congressional debates, the only use of the phrase “keep and bear arms” is a military phrase, and —

JUSTICE SCALIA: Blackstone thought it was important. Blackstone thought it was important. He thought the right of self-defense was inherent, and the framers were devoted to Blackstone. Joseph Story, the

JUSTICE SCALIA: Blackstone thought it was important. Blackstone thought it was important. He thought the right of self-defense was inherent, and the framers were devoted to Blackstone. Joseph Story, the first commentator on the Constitution and a member of this Court, thought it was a personal guarantee.”