US Army 2nd Amendment Patch

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of U.S. citizens to keep and bear arms.

It was ratified on December 15, 1791, as one of ten amendments approved on September 25, 1789, by the First Congress, known collectively as the United States Bill of Rights.

In District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008, the Supreme Court affirmed for the first time that the right to bear arms is specific to each individual and that the amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms for self-defense, while noting that this right is not unlimited and does not preclude the existence of certain long-standing prohibitions such as those prohibiting "the possession of weapons by felons and the mentally ill" or restrictions on "the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons."

In McDonald v. City of Chicago, 2010, the Supreme Court held that state and county governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from violating this right.

The importance of the Second Amendment is not limited to the legal and jurisprudential point of view. The debate continues today between various organizations that push for gun control and those that push for the preservation of gun rights.