The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the section of the Bill of Rights that enshrines American's right to keep and bear arms, or weapons.
CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin examined this text in the wake of the latest mass shooting in the United States.
“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."
For 100 years, the Supreme Court said that the second part of the text had nothing to do with individuals' rights to bear arms, according to Toobin. But four years ago, the Supreme Court, in a case called “Heller,” said the Second Amendment does mean that individuals have the right to a handgun at home.
What is not clear is how much more Americans have a right to: whether they have a right to handguns in the streets, whether they have a right to machine guns, semi-automatic weapons. But handguns at home, at least, are protected by the U.S. Constitution.
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