How Slave Owners Dictated the Language of the 2nd Amendment
The second Amendment stated that,” A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of people to bear and keep arms shall not be violated.” The amendment allowed people to hold and use guns for personal protection. But after a shooting were experienced in Ohio, Texas, Dayton, and El Paso, the Second Amendment as revised by a court conservative majority, Justice Scalia, requiring that all the Washington D.C guns even those lawfully owned by households should be kept non-functional. The declaration by Scalia was not appreciated by Virginia people who mainly used the amendment to have control over the slaves.
In his interpretation of the two clauses, Scalia stated that the clauses allowed people o carry and possess guns and use them in case of a confrontation. The auhor od the second amendment had fixed it on practical politics, and he introduced an amendment in Virginia debate that was supported by Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia. The governor saw that there was a threat by the Congress which had the power to arm, organize, an discipline the militia. He felt that the checks by the congress would hinder the militia in the south and Virginia from pursuing and suppressing the slaves. The slave owners used the guns to control the slaves, and could pursue them in case they escaped.
The governor warned by the power that Congress had would limit the only defense mechanism that the Virginia people had over the slaves, and so they opposed the amendment. Madison who was also a slave owner drafted the second amendment stating that only white militia in Virginia had the right to bear guns, and the African American militia their tasks were limited to buglers or drummers. Thus only the white owned guns, and they would control their slaves effectively.