On the BOR, 2nd Amendment and Incorporation

[Glassunion]

5. No, 3 individual state constitutions did not have a statement about a right to keep and bear arms.

Of the original 13 and their constitutions with specific mention of a Right to Keep and Bear Arms:

Delaware: Yes - Article 1 Sec 20 “A person has the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and State, and for hunting and recreational use.”

Pennsylvania: Yes - Article 1 Section 1 “All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty” and Section 21 “The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned”

New Jersey: No - There is no right to arms defined.

Georgia: Yes - Sec1 Paragraph 8 “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”

Connecticut: Yes - Section 15 “Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state”

Massachusetts: Yes - Article 17 "The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence. And as, in time of peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without the consent of the legislature; and the military power shall always be held in an exact subordination to the civil authority and be governed by it."

Maryland: No - There is no right to arms defined.

South Carolina: Yes - Section 20 “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”

New Hampshire: Yes - Article 2 “All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and the state”

Virginia: Article 1.13 “That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”

New York: No - There is no right to arms defined.

North Carolina: Yes - Photocopy of the US 2nd Amendment

Rhode Island: Yes - Section 22 “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”