What is the Second Amendment? Where did it come from? What does it mean? Why do we care?
For anyone who wonders about these questions, this book answers them. The book is an annotated collection of historical documents, beginning with the Magna Carta, that trace and outline the progression of human and civil rights and constitutional forms of government, from feudal England through successive confrontations between the British monarchy and the citizenry, through the efforts of the British colonies in North America to attain the same rights as British subjects in the home country, and eventually culminating in the American Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights.
The book also explores important documents, laws, and Supreme Court decisions that followed the Bill of Rights, and which help explain the origins, the original meaning, and the evolving jurisprudence surrounding the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Whether you are for or against the Second Amendment, or undecided and seeking more information, this collection of documents is a single source library of virtually every document needed to become better informed about what is possibly the most misunderstood and energetically debated of the rights in the American Bill of Rights.
This book doesn't talk about the documents while only quoting snippets to support a particular view or opinion. Within the limits of the allowable page count, this collection gives readers the full text of each document so they can read the documents and make their own decisions. Where extremely long documents have had non-binding appendices omitted to save space, links are provided so that readers can access the appendices if they wish to investigate them.
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms: A collection of Historical Documents relating to the Second Amendment is a repository of documents essential to understanding the Second Amendment.