What does the Second Amendment actually say?

The Second Amendment reads, in full: “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.” Two clauses generate two centuries of debate: a prefatory clause about a militia, and an operative clause about the people’s right. The central legal question has been whether the right is tied to militia service or is an individual right. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court held that it protects an individual right to keep a firearm for lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home, while noting the right is not unlimited and remains subject to certain regulations. McDonald v. Chicago (2010) then applied that right against the states. So the text is short and fixed; the meaning is shaped by how courts read the relationship between its two clauses. This is an explanation for general understanding, not legal advice.