The Second Amendment reads: “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.” What that means exactly is subject to intense debate. Pro-gun partisans argue that the Constitution's framers guaranteed peoples' right to possess and carry any sort of firearm. Gun control advocates, however, say it was intended to allow states to maintain the equivalent of today's National Guard units