Incorporation Revisited: How Heller and McDonald Misconstrued the Origins of the Second Amendment

Wayne BatchisThe case of McDonald v. Chicago in 2010 is responsible for the incorporation of the Second Amendment against the States through the Fourteenth Amendment in a contentious plurality opinion. The groundwork for this decision was laid down in District of Columba v. Heller, a pivotal case two years prior where the Court pronounced that the right to bear arms inherent in the Second Amendment was an individual one, embodying the principles of personal self-defense in the home. I am arguing that the holding in the McDonald decision, incorporating the Second Amendment, was merely a continuation of the fallacies committed in the Heller opinion. Utilizing Justice Antonin Scalia???s own framework, I analyze the Second Amendment???s right to bear arms through the lens of a textual originalist, compiling an original understanding of the provision through the use of relevant history. It will be argued that the proper conception of the right to bear arms as originally understood was akin to a collective right, serving as a bulwark against a tyrannical central government and ensuring that a standing army would never come to fruition. The Court???s precedent on incorporation necessitates that in order for a provision in the Bill of Rights to serve as a restriction at the state level, it must meet certain standards of fundamentality. As for the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment, the use of firearms for personal self-defense falls far short of the criteria.Political Scienc