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History of the Second Amendment

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History of the Second Amendment
Jimie C
Vallee
English 1B
18 November 2013
A Standard Model for Gun Control Is gun control worth the potential cost of our freedoms and can or will it come to a complete forfeiture of our Second Amendment rights? The loss of our Second Amendment rights would be a total travesty of justice for there is no room for error especially in light of our worldly circumstance today. We have so very much to lose in our precedent as a world leader. This is a topic that is of direct interest to everyone everywhere. With victims of school shootings and gun violence so prevalent in the world and in the media today every American is forced to have an opinion on the America’s Constitutional Second Amendment and what it means to them. Our international onlookers judge for themselves what is going on in America and observe with keen interest our closely guarded right to keep and bear arms as American citizens.
"The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." (Tench Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.) The interpretation of the “Standard Model” of the Second Amendment guarantees the right of individual Americans to own and carry firearms. This interpretation represents a part of American history that is foundational to the Second Amendment and that many collective rights theorists would prefer to erase. The collective rights theory is that arms are only to be used in connection with a militia. The history of America and its creation of the Constitution, as well as its Bill of Rights, is so fundamentally important to us today in preserving our civil liberties, that it is paramount we resist the temptation to avoid or eradicate any part of this important history with all of its milestones. If there were one message on the Second Amendment that should be conveyed, it would be to learn of our American Constitutional history in the



Bibliography: Barton, David. "The Separation of Church and State." WallBuilders. David Barton, Jan. 2001. Web Casida, Tishta T. "Natural Rights vs. Legal Rights." Daily Paul. Daily Paul, 5 Mar. 2012. Web. Cartoons Daily | Facebook. Conservative Political Cartoons Daily, 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2013. "National Constitution Center." National Constitution Center – Constitutioncenter.org. N.p., 1994 "Constitution Society :: Home." Constitution Society :: Home. N.p., 1994. Web. 02 Nov. 2013. Jefferson, Thomas. "Letter to Henry Lee." Letter to Henry Lee. Hillsdale College Press, 2012. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. A pdf document offering the letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Henry Lee in print wherein he accounts the political and philosophical traditions of Aristotle also naming Sidney, Locke and Cicero. Lott, John R., Jr. Crime Prevention Research Center. N.p., May 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. This is John Lott’s research center for his work with right to carry laws as well as the “Stand Recent Airings for RSS. C-SPAN, 13 Jan. 1994. Web. 23 Nov. 2013. This is a good site to review Lott’s bio and history with C-SPAN Stevens, Richard W., and Aaron Zelman. "Death by Gun Control." JPFO. JPFO, 2002. Web. 23 Sept "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 02 Nov Wayment, Andrew M. "THE SECOND AMENDMENT: A GUARD FOR OUR FUTURE SECURITY." Idaho Law Review Comments 37 (2000): 203., 2000 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. ' -- Mao Tse-tung, 1938

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