文档介绍：Chicago-Kent Law ReviewVolume 76Issue 1Symposium on the Second Amendment: FreshLooksArticle 7October 2000A Well Regulated Militia: The Second Amendmentin Historical PerspectivePaul FinkelmanFollow this and additional works at: of monsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by mons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusionin Chicago-Kent Law Review by an authorized administrator of mons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. For more information,please ******@ CitationPaul Finkelman,A Well Regulated Militia: The Second Amendment in Historical Perspective, 76 Chi.-Kent. L. Rev. 195 (2000).Available at:"A WELL REGULATED MILITIA": THE SECONDAMENDMENT IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEPAUL FINKELMAN*A well regulated Militia, composed of gentlemen freeholders, andother freemen, is the natural strength and only stable security of afree Government.-e Mason,The history of the Second Amendment is rooted in Englishconflicts between the king and his people. It involves the relationshipbetween the standing army and the militias during and after theEnglish Civil War. It also involves the struggles of the colonistsagainst the Crown before and during the English background is useful, and certainly interesting, butthe history of the drafting and adoption of the Second Amendmentemerges out of far more immediate events. The failure of thenational government under the Articles of Confederation promptedthe call for a convention to revise the American leaders were contemplating calling a conventionto revise the Articles, violent resistance to traditional lawenforcement-most notably Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts-underscored the sense of crisis that many Americans felt. Farmersled by Captain Daniel Shays marched on local courthouses in westernMassachusetts, shutting down the courts