How is Concealed Carry Not A 2nd Amendment Right?

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.

That’s a direct quote from the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Now, despite the fact that it clearly says the citizenry of America have the right to keep and bear arms, this has been in dispute for over a hundred years, because there are people who do not want law abiding American citizens to own firearms. As clear as the anti-gun opposition is, I find it hard to understand how some who, in fact, support the right to keep and bear arms do not believe that the 2nd Amendment gives them the right to carry a concealed weapon.

I have heard many argue against concealed carry’s Constitutionality based on Judicial precedents laid down by anti-gun judges as far back as 1840, however, it is clear to me that any and all rulings against the right of the people to carry concealed weapons are unconstitutional.

In many cases, anti-gun Judges of the past have claimed that the founding fathers never specified Concealed Carry in their writings, and therefore they must not have intended Americans to have the right to carry concealed. On the contrary, I feel that the founders did not specify Concealed Carry in the constitution, not because they were against it, but because they never considered it a separate right from the right to keep and bear arms openly. It should also be noted that all of the anti-gun judgements in courts started happening after the founders had died, and they were not there to object.

The courts have been spitting on the Constitution for over a hundred years, and just because some appointed Justice a hundred years ago said something against our rights does not mean we should keep upholding their bad rulings. The founders specified keeping and bearing arms, and allowing the 2nd Amendment to apply to Concealed Carry is no different than allowing the 1st Amendment to cover pictures. There is no mention of Pictures or photographs in the 1st Amendment, but visual items are now protected by freedom of speech, as a form of expression. How one expresses themselves via the 1st Amendment is protected, just as the way someone chooses to bear arms should be equally protected by the 2nd Amendment. They are exactly the same thing. Neither is specified, but both are implied, and would have been included had the founders had any idea that people would be arguing against them.

I will also point out that it is a slippery slope that we tread, when we start saying the government has a right to decide how we keep and bear arms. Since there is no specifications in the 2nd Amendment as to how one is allowed to carry their weapon, someone could just as easily argue that the government could demand that all firearms have trigger locks on them at all times while carried. It is no different than saying you’re not allowed to carry a weapon under a coat. It is simply the manner in which one is bearing arms, and any government restriction on how we are allowed to carry should be deemed “infringing” on our right to keep and bear arms, and clearly prohibited by the 2nd Amendment. What part of “Shall not be infringed” is unclear?

There is a fine line between a rock-solid Constitution and the “living document” many scholars debate about today, but I do not see classifying concealed carry as a 2nd Amendment right to have anything to do with altering the Constitution. It is a reaffirmation of a right that we were supposed to have from the start, and only defeats certain efforts to turn the Constitution into that living document, and erase our 2nd Amendment rights.

Anti-Gunners are nothing new, and there have been elitists in our Courts, Legislatures, and Congress trying to disarm our citizenry since its founding. As such, laws based on the corrupt precedents set down by anti-gunning legislatures or courts are tainted and no more in the spirit of the Constitution than the original rulings upon which they were founded. There will come a day when we have to concretely define the 2nd Amendment in modern terms, with absolute clarity and provisions to prevent judges from overruling it through Judicial activism. When that day comes, I fully intend to see Concealed Carry specified as covered by the 2nd Amendment.