What does the second amendment say?
It 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.”
The word infringed means “limited”, but this amendment has been interpreted in different ways. Some focus on the “right of the people” wording and suggest that this means the government cannot put many/any restrictions on a person’s right to have weapon if they so choose. Others focus on the phrase about “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security” suggest that the writers were making sure that volunteer militias like the ones that existed in the late 1700s would have the ability to keep weapons, not individual people. They further argue that since we have a full time army now (not a volunteer militia), this right as not as needed or important as it once was.
Questions we need to think about as we look into this issue:
1. Should there be a guaranteed right to bear arms as it is currently states in the Constitution?
2. Is there a need to make more gun laws to make the United States a safer country?
3. What is the role of government in deciding who should have access to guns, how many/what kind of guns people should be able to purchase, and how people should handle/use guns they are in possession of?
4. What are the rights of people who want guns vs the rights of people who do not want guns? And how can they coexist?
Today is going to reading a little background on the topic, but then focusing in small groups what information we actually want to learn about. This will help drive our next class and allow us to get very focused on what material we need to find (I'll do a lot of the digging, but I want to have you tell me what you are looking for).
