By Edwin Taber

   In this article I will be addressing states rights as they apply to the Second Amendment and I will be referencing Webster's 1828 Dictionary since it reflects the definition of words used in the US Constitution.  Right - Just claim; immunity; privilege.  All men have a right to the secure enjoyment of life, personal safety, liberty and property.  We deem the right of trial by jury invaluable, particularly in the case of crimes.  Rights are natural, civil, political, religious, personal, and public.  Power – the right of governing.  “The powers not delegated to the United States [all the states] by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states [individual] are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”  The Tenth Amendment Respectively – as relating to each.  What is an example of a prohibition to the state in the US Constitution?  In the Second Amendment there is a prohibition to the states.  The Second Amendment says: “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 individual states are prohibited by the words “shall not be infringed”.  Prohibit means to forbid or to interdict by authority.  The word shall means the authors wished to express determination with the implication of an authority to enforce.  Interdict means to prohibit. Infringe means to violate, either positively by contravention, or negatively by non-fulfillment or neglect of performance.  Contravention means a defeating of the operation or effect.  A state's power to govern has restrictions such as the one imposed in the Second Amendment.  The Constitution does not permit any state action forbidding any part of the Second Amendment.  A state cannot attempt to defeat the intent and purpose of the Second Amendment by statute, policy or regulation.  A state cannot neglect to support and defend the Second Amendment.  The prohibition of this particular power to govern to the states as stated by “shall not be infringed” in the Second Amendment is expressed with determination for compliance and with an unqualified intent to enforce. The prohibition extends to the people as well since it's the duty of citizens to participate in the security of the state and they cannot refuse any call to militia duty except on religious scruples as this would clearly be an infringement.