2nd Ammendment: Narrowly escaped any political arguments over the vacation, although this one started to raise its head. Fortunately, another in the room "fell on the grenade" for me and I snuck out for a smoke. However, the question remained unaddressed. Does the "right to bear arms" apply to individuals, or does it merely authorize states to form militias. Well, let's see...

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 was said that "the people" must be interpreted as a collective group, else it would have to say "persons" or "individuals" or "citizens". The people, as represented by their state militias, i.e. the National Guard, are allowed to bear arms. This, it was argued, is the strict constuctionist reading of the Constitution and should, naturally, be the conservative's position (as a wise person said, anytime a democrat starts arguing strict construction, look out). Left unsaid was that conservatives are just a bunch of hypocrites who want to carry assault rifles to scare liberals out of their trees.

But the phrase "the people" appears elsewhere in the Constitution and no conservative argues for a "collective" interpretation.

First Amendment: Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . . the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated . . . .


Ninth Amendment: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

And the Tenth Ammendment draws a clear distinction between the states and the people:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.(emphasis mine)

This language is supported by most state constitutions that protect the right to bear arms, for certainly the state cannot simaltaneously protect gun ownership and reserve the right to itself, exclusively. No, it is an individual right, just as speech assembly, religion etc. are individual rights the people enjoy.

For more, Eugene Volokh has written much about the topic and most of it can be found here.