The fifth and last auxiliary right of the subject, that I shall at present mention, is that of having arms for their defense . . . which is also declared by the same statute 1 W. & M. st. 2, C. 2, and it is indeed, a public allowance under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation.
The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution provides 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 question of the source of this principle is difficult because of the extensive history of debate in England and virtually every other society which has attempted to maintain a balance between anarchy and oppressive government. However, it is safe to say that the American belief in the right to bear arms has its roots in "civil jurists of the period who had specifically dealt with the question of self-defense as a natural right."
It has been noted that their doctrine stemmed essentially from the traditional view of suicide as a sin and perhaps as the ultimate sin. To them a failure to defend yourself against an unlawful aggression amounted to suicide by inaction. If a person's life is a gift of the Creator and he cannot destroy it by action, he cannot destroy it by inaction or negligence. If life is not the private property of the person living, then it is not his to destroy or allow to be destroyed: you may voluntarily acquiesce to robbery; you may not voluntarily acquiesce to murder.