{"id":526,"date":"2023-06-02T19:13:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T19:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/sam-shapiro-the-second-amendment\/"},"modified":"2023-06-02T19:14:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T19:14:15","slug":"sam-shapiro-the-second-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/sam-shapiro-the-second-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Shapiro-The Second Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sam Shapiro-Second Amendment\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KrxKnwms__A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Written Component<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the Constitution was ratified, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">many people believed that armies were a way for governments to oppress their citizens. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Second Amendment, which grants citizens the right to bear arms, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">served as a counterbalance to this potential threat to liberty. Citizens bearing arms allowed the government to utilize standalone militias consisting of regular people with their own guns as an alternative to a standing army. The right to bear arms also gave citizens a direct ability to resist tyranny.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the common interpretation of the Second Amendment, that it all grants citizens the right to bear arms, is subject to debate. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some argue that like the First and Fourth Amendments, the Second Amendment is an individual right granting personal protection and a right to self-defense. In this context, regulations cannot sacrifice one\u2019s individual right to protection, and gun control laws must be extremely limited in nature to be constitutional. The \u2018individual right\u2019 argument was supported by the Supreme Court\u2019s 2008 decision in D.C. vs Heller. This ruling overturned previous gun control restrictions in the District.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Others argue that the Second Amendment supports a more limited right to bear arms. They argue that the first clause of the amendment, \u201ca well regulated Militia,\u201d is a restriction on gun ownership; gun control is therefore broadly permissible. This is further supported by the fact that gun control laws existed when this amendment was enacted. At the time, slaves and loyalists were banned from gun ownership, and laws specified which guns were allowed for militias to use. Some of these laws were intended for public safety. As a result, this side believes that gun ownership today, and the Second Amendment more broadly, must be placed in the context of public safety concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, the Second Amendment has proven to be problematic because our society is very different from the founding fathers\u2019 era. The Constitution was ratified at a time when people were concerned about government tyranny. The Second Amendment, by enabling citizen militias, partially addressed that concern. Today, government tyranny is much less of a fear as it was, and even if it is a concern, individuals owning guns are powerless against the US Military. So, the reasons behind the Second Amendment no longer exist, but Americans still have the right to bear arms. This right, combined with the availability of advanced weaponry, has led to an epidemic of mass shootings and gun violence in our society. Change is needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Second Amendment should be amended to make it clear that gun control is lawful and that gun ownership is not an individual right. This change can be coupled with laws that restore public safety with respect to guns. Examples could include a ban on semi-automatic weapons and requiring education, training, and background checks before gun ownership. By restoring balance to the Second Amendment, we can have a safer society while maintaining personal liberties. One hopes our current political environment will evolve to make this future possible.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br style=\"font-weight: 400\"><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the Constitution was ratified, many people believed that armies were a way for governments to oppress their citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4620,"featured_media":444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,46,253,608,607,249,604,606,603,244,247,605,19],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amendment","tag-constitution-project","tag-gun-control","tag-gun-restrictions","tag-guns","tag-right-to-bear-arms","tag-sam","tag-sam-shapiro","tag-sam-shapiro-the-second-amendment","tag-second","tag-second-amendment","tag-shapiro","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}