Summary

Yes, the Second Amendment was intended to be applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment though the courts have refused to acknowledge or apply original intent.

Although an extremely important topic affecting firearms freedom, it is currently beyond the scope of GunCite to discuss Fourteenth Amendment issues. References are provided below for those who would like to learn more about the Fourteenth Amendment and how it was clearly intended to protect firearms rights.

Also forty-four states have constitutional guarantees on the right to keep and bear arms. To read the relevant clauses see Dowlut, Robert, Federal and State Constitutional Guarantees to Arms, 15 U. Dayton L. Rev. 1-89(1989). (Scroll down to the Appendix.)

Wisconsin was the most recent state (November 1998) to add a constitutional provision, it reads:

The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation, or any other lawful purpose. (Art. 1, § 25)

Since 1970, fifteen "states enacted their own state constitutional rights to keep and bear arms for the first time, or strengthened their existing rights". ( The Second Amendment as Teaching Tool in Constitutional Law Classes)

For Further Reading

Halbrook, Stephen P., The Right to Keep and Bear Arms under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments: The Framers' Intent and Supreme Court Jurisprudence, 5 J. on Firearms & Pub. Pol'y. 7-28 (1993). [HTML] 59k

_____, Personal Security, Personal Liberty, and "The Constitutional Right to Bear Arms": Visions of the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment, 5 Seton Hall Const. L.J. 341-434 (1995). [HTML] 284k

_____, The Fourteenth Amendment and the Right To Keep and Bear Arms: The Intent of the Framers, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 68-82 (Comm. print 1982). [HTML] 61k

_____, The Jurisprudence of the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, 4 GMU L. Rev. 1-69 (1981). [HTML] 243k