  the right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms or to have arms) is the people's right to have their own arms for their defense as described in the philosophical and political writings of aristotle, cicero, john locke, machiavelli, the english whigs and others. in countries with an english common law tradition, a long standing common law right to keep and bear arms has long been recognized, as pre-existing in common law, prior even to the existence of written national constitutions. in the united states, the right to keep and bear arms is also an enumerated right specifically protected by the u.s. constitution and many state constitutions such that people have a personal right to own arms for individual use, and a right to bear these same arms both for personal protection and for use in a militia. the carrying of arms in public can be categorized as open carry and concealed carry, and it is a separate topic of laws and regulations beyond ownership alone. ==background==  the bill of rights act, 1689 allowed for protestant citizenry to "have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law ," and restricted the right of the english crown to have a standing army or to interfere with protestants' right to bear arms "when papists were both armed and imployed contrary to law." it also established that regulating the right to bear arms was one of the powers of parliament and not of the monarch.{{cite web |url=
American_phraseology Civil_rights_and_liberties Gun_politics Human_rights_by_issue