Also known as: rights to keep and bear arms · right to bear arms · Second Amendment · 2A right
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A constitutional protection under the Second Amendment that safeguards an individual's ability to possess and use firearms for lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home. The protection extends against total bans on handguns and requirements that render firearms inoperable for immediate defensive use. It applies to the states through incorporation and reaches public carry when consistent with historical tradition.
Raymond Ramos keeps a loaded handgun in his bedside drawer for protection after prior break-ins at his apartment. A city ordinance bans all handgun possession inside residences and requires other firearms to remain locked and unloaded at all times. Ramos sues to enjoin enforcement. The ordinance prevents immediate access to a functional firearm for self-defense in the home and therefore violates the right.
Roberto Reyes resides in a state that forbids operable handguns in apartments and mandates biometric locks on long guns outside preset hours. He challenges the law after a nighttime threat near his building. The restrictions eliminate ready access to arms for self-defense inside the home. Because the Second Amendment right binds the state, the ordinance cannot stand.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Rosa Ruiz lives in employer-provided housing above a restaurant where a health code bars handguns and requires shotguns to stay disassembled in locked containers. She keeps an operable handgun for self-defense and refuses to comply. The rules leave her without any functional firearm available at the moment of need inside her residence. The restrictions therefore infringe the protected right.
Rina Rahman signs a lease in a newly approved apartment complex subject to a city zoning rule that prohibits handguns and requires permanent trigger locks on all long guns. She purchased a handgun specifically for immediate home protection. The conditions eliminate any operable firearm when an intruder appears. The rule therefore conflicts with the core protection for self-defense in the home.
Ruby Rivera moves into subsidized athlete housing that conditions her license on certifying no handguns will be kept in the unit. She refuses after prior threats and faces suspension. The pledge removes any practical means of armed self-defense inside her residence. The condition therefore burdens the protected right.
Renee Rogers applies for a permit to carry a handgun outside the home for self-defense after receiving threats. State officials deny the application under a discretionary good-cause standard. The denial prevents her from exercising the right to bear arms in public consistent with historical tradition. The permitting scheme therefore violates the protection.
A total ban on handguns in the home violates the right because handguns are the most common firearm chosen for self-defense. The protection requires that law-abiding citizens retain the ability to keep a functional handgun available for immediate use inside the residence. Requirements that render other firearms inoperable produce the same constitutional defect.
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The right is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. This means state and local governments are bound by the same limits that apply to the federal government. Most Bill of Rights protections receive the same treatment.
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The right extends to carrying a handgun in public for self-defense when the regulation is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Modern interest-balancing tests are not used to evaluate such restrictions.
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A requirement that firearms be stored in off-site lockboxes overnight violates the right because it prevents immediate access for self-defense inside the home. The protection demands that a functional firearm remain available at the moment of need rather than locked away in another location.
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…not a series of isolated points pricked out in terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and…