In world geography today my teacher brought up a interesting question, "why do we have the right to bear arms?". A girl said to defend ourselves from foreign powers. He then said "No, but thank you for suggesting this. It is in fact, to protect ourselves in the situation that our government were to collapse upon itself and use the military against the people". I don't know if this is right or not but it was very interesting to me... What do you think the purpose is?

it was without a doubt orginally designed to defend us against foreign powers, specifically the king of england(it specifies england) But at the time the American military had a large militia element. These days guns are used mainly for recreation.

im affraid id have to agree with the first post...

one of the original sticking points was that the states did not have the authority to maintain militas. Sure they could be used to augment the national forces..but they were also there to provide a check on the national government as well. A young government with no outside checks and balances against a coup was a distressing idea.

so in the bill of rights:
Amendment II A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

it wasnt there for fun folks..and i believe the government was very much aware of the implications of standing militas in the states.

Safeguard against tyranny, homeland defense, personal defense, recreational shooting, and hunting are all reasons why we have the right to bear arms. Mainly, the purpose of writing the 2nd Amendment was to ensure that the right to bear arms would never be disputed. After all, the militiamen fighting against the British sure as hell didn’t need to be told that they had the right to bear arms .

The notion that the right to bear arms is for homeland defense, is not wrong at all. Even in the modern age, an armed citizenry; especially of the United States, is something that intimidates would-be invaders.

Admiral Yamamoto: "You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." Advising Japan's military leaders of the futility of an invasion of the mainland United States because of the widespread availability of guns. It has been theorized that this was a major contributing factor in Japan's decision not to land on North America early in the war when they had vastly superior military strength. This delay gave our industrial infrastructure time to gear up for the conflict and was decisive in our later victory.

It was for another check on the Government, not against a foreign power.

Quote:

Admiral Yamamoto: "You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." Advising Japan's military leaders of the futility of an invasion of the mainland United States because of the widespread availability of guns. It has been theorized that this was a major contributing factor in Japan's decision not to land on North America early in the war when they had vastly superior military strength. This delay gave our industrial infrastructure time to gear up for the conflict and was decisive in our later victory.

Thats nice. But I believe the main purpose was for the citizens do defend them selves from tyrany.