LISTEN

We Have the Second Amendment All Wrong

Citizen Board Member and MSNBC host Ali Velshi says the 1791 edict doesn't mean what we think it means

LISTEN

We Have the Second Amendment All Wrong

Citizen Board Member and MSNBC host Ali Velshi says the 1791 edict doesn't mean what we think it means

BY Ali Velshi

Jun. 06, 2022

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The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. It affords American citizens their freedoms. But it’s been debated, updated and amended as America has grown and faced challenges not addressed by the Founding Fathers.

One of the most hotly debated of those amendments is the Second Amendment, which consists of just one sentence, “A well regu­lated mili­tia, being neces­sary for the secur­ity of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

We’ve been conditioned to put the greatest weight on the second part of the sentence: “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” On its own, it’s quite convincing: The people of America have the “right” to bear arms. But that line alone leaves out a significant part of America’s history: militias.

Listen to Velshi’s commentary below.

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