It's called the right to bear arms and it is guaranteed by the US Constitution. The Second Amendment clearly states that "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." The first ten amendments are also known as the Bill of Rights. So pro-gun activists are right. The right to bear arms, like the right to free speech, must be protected. However, pro-gun activists do not fully understand the reasons for this right. The law is not about protection against burglars but against Indians and the state. At the time the U.S. Constitution was written, many American families lived on the border lines where Indians would be continually threatened. The United States had a standing army, but it was too far away and not readily available to protect these families when the Indians attacked. This forced families to have guns in the home. The Indians posed an external threat. An internal threat was the government. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that if a government failed to protect its citizens and instead became an enemy, the citizens had the right to overthrow it. After the Revolutionary War, the Founding Fathers did not want to replace an oppressive army like Great Britain with one of their own. They believed that an armed citizen was the best form of military. This is what we mean by a well-regulated militia. The militia would be composed of any able-bodied man trained to use his own weapons for local defense purposes and during actual military events. This well-regulated local militia is the equivalent of the National Guard. Nowadays we no longer need to protect ourselves from Indians. As for an oppressed government, we have our National Guard. The original intent of the right to bear arms does not apply to