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2A Day

Next celebratedSaturday, April 17, 2027

2A Day puts the Second Amendment on the calendar, at parades, at fairs, and in the argument people are having about it anyway. Read the amendment itself, then look up what your own state has on its books.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEApril 17
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYCulture
SUBCATEGORYCivics
ORIGIN

Individual Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
Deborah Lane
FIRST OBSERVED
2019
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A commercial registry listing is the entire founding record.

Deborah Lane created 2A Day in 2019 and recorded it on the National Day Archives, a commercial registry of user-submitted national days. No statute, proclamation or resolution established the day, and no source states why April 17 was chosen.

View the registry entryvia nationaldayarchives.com
INTRO

A national day with a timestamp on it

2A Day has a founding document, and it is a web page. The entry that created it went live on 18 March 2019 at 12:56:41 UTC. Its own markup records the last edit an hour and two minutes later.

Then nothing. When the Internet Archive photographed the page just over two years later, the stamp still read that same afternoon.

That page is a listing on a registry that sells national days, and no other record of who created 2A Day, or when, has surfaced. It went up thirty days before the first April 17 it named.

Six years later the day turned up in a House press release, with a congressman's name on it.

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ORIGINS

2A Day history

INTRODUCTION

The amendment itself has an exact paper trail. The First Congress sent twelve amendments to the states on 25 September 1789. Ten came back ratified on 15 December 1791.

Those ten were the proposed Articles 3 through 12. The right to keep and bear arms travelled to the states as Article 4. The day that honors it has no comparable paper trail at all.

CHAPTER 01

The one document behind the day

National Day Archives is a commercial registry. It takes an application and a one-time fee, then publishes a permanent page naming whoever registered the day.

Its page for 2A Day states the founding claim in a single sentence. This day was created by Deborah Lane in 2019, it reads. Nothing else on the page says who she is, and nothing on it explains the date.

The entry does state a purpose. It asks that the day be kept by spreading information about the meaning and significance of the Second Amendment, at parades, fairs, gatherings and fireworks. What it does not show is any authority behind that request: no legislature voted on the day, and no office signed anything.

CHAPTER 02

How April 17 reached the House

On 17 April 2025, Congressman Roger Williams (TX-25) introduced a resolution, and his office announced it in honor of National Second Amendment Day. The release named the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation as supporting organizations.

Its background note then described April 17 in almost the registry's own words: a national day of observation and commemoration of the Second Amendment, to honor our forefathers' wisdom and the freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution. That sentence was already sitting on the registry page in the Internet Archive's capture of April 2021, four years earlier.

So the day acquired a congressman, a cosponsor list and congressional letterhead. What it still did not acquire was a document that established it.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why 2A Day Matters

STANDING

Zero presidential documents, and a House resolution that has not moved since April 2025.

A search of presidential documents in the Federal Register returns nothing at all for 2A Day or Second Amendment Day. The House resolution introduced on April 17, 2025 has not moved since that day, and its status is still recorded as introduced.

PRECEDENT

One state wrote its reason into the law

Oklahoma designates 28 June as Second Amendment Day in Title 25 of its statutes, and the section opens by stating the Legislature's intent: to commemorate the date the Supreme Court decided McDonald v. City of Chicago. It is a commemorative designation rather than a day off, and Oklahoma's own list of legal holidays does not include it.

SCALE

The record behind the amendment runs to nine figures

The FBI counts 544,677,361 firearm background checks initiated through its national system between 30 November 1998 and 31 August 2026. The FBI's own note cautions that these are not sales, and that no one-to-one correlation can be drawn between a background check and a firearm sale.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Bill of Rights ratified

Ten of the twelve amendments Congress had proposed were ratified on 15 December, the right to keep and bear arms among them as proposed Article 4.

Supreme Court decides McDonald

The Court held in McDonald v. City of Chicago that the Second Amendment applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

2A Day is registered

The National Day Archives published its entry for the day on 18 March, crediting Deborah Lane and fixing it to April 17.

A second 2A Day appears

Brownells established a separate National 2nd Amendment Day on 22 February, marked at participating gun ranges.

The registry entry is edited

The entry's last-modified stamp moved to 16 April, the eve of that year's observance and the first change visible in any archived capture.

The day reaches a House resolution

Representative Roger Williams introduced H.Res. 339 on 17 April, announced by his office as marking National Second Amendment Day.

BY THE NUMBERS

2A Day by the Numbers

1 hr 2 min
2A Day entry, published to last edit
765 days
2A Day entry unchanged, 2019 to 2021
$995
National Day Archives standard listing, 2026
16
House members cosponsoring H.Res. 339
6
Resolved clauses in H.Res. 339

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

Congress recognized 2A Day in 2025.

The truth

H.Res. 339 was introduced on 17 April 2025 and never mentions 2A Day, Second Amendment Day or April 17 anywhere in its text. The day appears only in the sponsor's press release about it.

The myth

Pennsylvania observes a Second Amendment day on the fourth Tuesday of May.

The truth

Pennsylvania's event is an annual advocacy rally at the State Capitol steps in Harrisburg. Its tenth edition was held on 12 May 2015, which was a second Tuesday, not a fourth.

The myth

South Carolina designates December 15 as a Second Amendment day.

The truth

That designation exists only in the Second Amendment Education Act, a bill prefiled in December 2014. The General Assembly's own record shows it still residing in the House Committee on Education and Public Works, with no action since January 2015.

The myth

April 17 marks the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

The truth

Those battles were fought on 19 April 1775, over sixteen miles between Boston and Concord. No source connects them to April 17, and none gives any other reason for the date.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe 2A Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Read the twenty-seven words the day is about

The whole Second Amendment runs to twenty-seven words, printed in full by the Constitution Annotated. Reading the text takes less time than reading a summary of it.

OPEN

Open the resolution and check its clauses

The introduced text of H.Res. 339 runs to three pages and is public. Compare what its title promises with what its numbered clauses actually resolve.

LOOK

Look up your own state's commemorative days

Oklahoma keeps its designated days in Title 25 of its statutes, in a run of sections kept apart from the list of legal holidays. Find the equivalent chapter for your own state and read what is actually on it.

TRACE

Trace a national day back to its record

Before repeating that something is a national day, find the document that says so: a statute, a proclamation, or a paid registry listing. Telling those three apart is most of the work.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know 2A Day?

1 / 8

When was the Bill of Rights ratified?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no statute or presidential proclamation behind it, so April 17 is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

14sources
12primary records
8independently dated
Primary records
National Day Archives2019-03-18
2A Day
The registry entry that is the only record of the day's creation, naming Deborah Lane and the year 2019, and carrying the page's own published and last-modified timestamps.
View source
National Day Archives
National Day Pricing
The registry's own price list and registration process, showing that listings are sold for a one-time fee.
View source
Office of Representative Roger Williams2025-04-17
Congressman Williams Introduces Resolution Backing the Second Amendment on National 2A Day
The sponsor's own announcement of the 2025 resolution, listing the sixteen original cosponsors and the two supporting organizations, and describing what April 17 is.
View source
Office of Representative Roger Williams2025-04-09
H.Res. 339, text as introduced
The full three-page text of the resolution, its whereas clauses and its six numbered resolved clauses.
View source
Oklahoma State Senate2022-05
Oklahoma Statutes, Title 25: Definitions and General Provisions
Section 90.20, designating 28 June as Second Amendment Day and stating the Legislature's reason, alongside Section 82.1's list of Oklahoma legal holidays.
View source
National Archives
The Bill of Rights: A Transcription
The record that twelve amendments were proposed in September 1789, that ten were ratified on 15 December 1791, and that the ratified Articles 3 through 12 became the first ten amendments.
View source
Library of Congress2010
McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010)
The United States Reports text of the decision, giving the argument and decision dates and the holding that the Second Amendment applies to the states.
View source
South Carolina General Assembly2015-01-15
2015-2016 Bill 3023: Second Amendment Education Act
The bill that would have created a December 15 Second Amendment Awareness Day, with the legislature's own status record showing it never left committee.
View source
National Park Service
April 19, 1775, Minute Man National Historical Park
The park service's account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, fixing them to 19 April 1775 along sixteen miles of road between Boston and Concord.
View source
FBI2026-08-31
NICS Firearm Background Checks: Month/Year
The program-to-date total of background checks from November 1998 onward, with the FBI's own caution that checks are not firearm sales.
View source
Constitution Annotated, Library of Congress
Second Amendment: Right to Bear Arms
The verbatim text of the Second Amendment alongside the Congressional Research Service essays on its interpretation.
View source
Prince Law Offices2015-04-14
Pennsylvania Second Amendment Action Day, May 12, 2015
The archived announcement identifying Pennsylvania's event as the tenth annual Second Amendment Action Day, a rally at the State Capitol steps in Harrisburg.
View source
Additional coverage
Second Amendment Foundation
SAF Says Gun Owners Should Celebrate Brownells' 2A Day
The release describing the second annual National 2nd Amendment Day established by Brownells and held on 22 February.
View source
GovTrack
H.Res. 339 (119th Congress)
The resolution's sponsor, introduction date of 17 April 2025, and its unchanged status of introduced.
View source
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