While the idea of individuals wanting to have firearms for
defense of self and property seems distinctly American, its origins
are found in Medieval England.

	The bearing of arms began as a duty to maintain not only the
public safety, but to allow armed individuals to act as an available
army in case of attack by foreign intruders. There was no constabulary
to protect individuals against criminals. Additionally, there was also
an intense fear of standing armies since they were paid mercenaries
with little loyalty to the reigning monarch and less to the local
citizenry.

	Lest anyone attributes a real scholarly talent, opposed to a
true pleasure of and respect for history, let me thank David Hardy,
Esq. and Professor Joyce Malcolm for their fascinating discussions
into the seeds of the American constitutional right to keep and Bear
Arms. In addition to Mr. Hardy's Origins and Development of the Second
Amendment and Ms. Malcolm's To Keep and Bear Arms which both have been
liberally used, I have had the pleasure of hearing them deliver papers
on this great tradition.

	The Saxons, who invaded England around 500 A.D. required that
each landowner maintain weapons and armor suitable to his rank and
position. It was additionally required that every freeman was to be
instructed in the use of arms and to perform military exercises once a
year.

	William the Conqueror and the Normans brought with them a more
advanced feudal system when they conquered England in 1066 A.D. The
Assize of Arms of 1181 required that every freeman had to possess the
arms as required by statute by the Feast of St. Hillary and that they
could not be sold, given , lent or pledged in any manner.

	By the late 1200's crime was so rife that all men, not just
free men, between the ages of fifteen and sixty were required to have
and be capable of using minimally bows and arrows.

	In was not until 1328, that the idea of bearing arms was even
considered anything but a duty.  Edward III ordered that arms could
not be carried into certain places, such as courts and affrays (riots)
in an attempt to stop the marauders who were terrorizing the
people.. As David Hardy so susinctly points out, Edward "was being
held prisoner at this time by his father's murderer, whom he later
overthrew and executed: 14th century politics was a risky business."

	In 1503, Henry VII put severe curbs on the shooting of
crossbows because "shooting is now greatly decayed in the realm" and
longbows had been used with such success that "honor and victory had
been gotten against enemies and the realm greatly defended."
Interestingly, along with the ban on crossbows, came one exception:
"unless he shoot out of a house for lawful defense of the same." (19
Hen.  VII c.4)

	Nine years later, Henry VIII expanded the citizens' role in
keeping both the domestic and national peace by ruling that each child
between the ages of seven and seventeen be provided with a bow and
four arrows "to amuse them and learn them." (3 Hen. VIII c.3)

	In 1514 Henry VIII realized that the longbow had fallen into
disfavor with the citizenry so he revived the restrictions on
crossbows and included some on "hand gonnes." (6 Hen. VIII c.13) By
1539 after several revisions, the hand gonne prohibition was
repealed. Within a few years, the sovereign was proclaiming "how
expeditious it was to have his loving subjects practiced and exercised
in the shooting of handguns."

	It was not until the reign of Henry's daughter Mary that the
concept of militia was even introduced in relation to the bearing of
arms. In the lengthy document dated 1557/8 that proscribes eighteen
different classes of obligations, a major theme appears to be the need
for training , drilling and organization of the citizenry and a
schedule for musters. (4 & 5 Phil. & Mar. c.2,3)

	With the ascent of Elizabeth in 1558 to the throne, the
promotion of shooting and militia musters continued.

	Elizabeth was followed in 1603 by James I who repealed the
Tudor statute and by 1639, the laws governing the requirements for
personal arms and drilling had either been repealed or were being
ignored.  His son, Charles I attempted to raise a permanent army as
England's contribution to the Thirty Years War. With the antiarmy
sentiment and Parliament's refusal to pay allocate funds for them,
Charles forced citizens to billet soldiers in private homes and funded
them through forced loans.  The citizens were outraged and a
confrontation between the English Parliament and the king took
place. The Parliament demanded control of the militia and the King is
quoted as responding "By God, not for an hour." Thus began the English
Civil War.  The result of this travail was that "Forewarned was
forearmed, and from 1642 Englishmen learned to hide their firearms and
stockpile weapons." (J. Malcolm, 10 Hast. Con. L.Q. 285, 294) It is
from these earliest protectors of individual liberties, that the seeds
of our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms spring. Even
before King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215 agreeing to remove
"all alien knights, crossbowmen, sergeants, and mercenary soldiers,"
this right has been regarded as a corner stone of individual
liberty. So it continues today: a mainstay of freedom.