As I enter the year 2026, I form a question resulting from a name change. I legally changed my name from Maxwell Joshua Bowditch Wilby to Maxwell DeMarcus Saint Squaired. After doing so I did some research on coats of arms as I had essentially started a new lineage and legacy. After some time on the website of the Institute of Heraldry I noticed that the term “to bear arms” was used. And so, I formed the question of whether the term to bear arms in the context of the Constitution is a term of heraldry or weaponry.

Given the British influence of the times and certain aspects of the Constitution such as The Insurgency Clause I argue the forefathers despite our zest for the patriotic would have been very clear in their intent and written armaments instead of arms if in fact they had wanted us all to bear firearms and not simply secure the freedom of a militia to wave flags and bear insignia representing their rank.

Also, if one looks at the development of the word arms, “Ar” was a Proto-Indo-European root that meant “to fit together” leading to the Latin word Arma which originally only meant tools and implements. Later this meaning then specialized to refer specifically to the tools of war, which included both offensive weapons and defensive armor and shields. But the term “arms” in English originally was a heraldic term.

The term “armament” first appeared in English in the early to mid-17th century, with Merriam-Webster citing 1632 for its first known use, while the Oxford English Dictionary traces it to 1668, both describing military equipment or forces, deriving from Latin roots for equipping with weapons. And of course, Blacks Legal Dictionary gives U.S. the 18th-century meaning of “arms “as consistent with “weapons of offence, or armor of defense.” Timothy Cunningham’s 1771 legal dictionary defined “arms” as “anything that a man wears for his defense, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another”. However, in the earliest editions the definition is distinguished between the general act of carrying weapons and the specific, military meaning of “bear arms.” Though it seems axiomatic, the truth is there and a distinct possibility we have no constitutional right to firearms but simply a right to symbolism within the context of a militia.

Maxwell DeMarcus Saint Squaired lives in Greenfield.