{"id":422,"date":"2020-01-29T21:09:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T21:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/?p=422"},"modified":"2020-01-29T21:11:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T21:11:08","slug":"what-does-the-second-amendment-actually-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/post-1-spring-2019\/what-does-the-second-amendment-actually-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Second Amendment Actually Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

V. Hajek <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Constitution has served as the basis of our government since 1787, and it was created by America\u2019s founding fathers to lay out the system to run the newly independent nation. The Bill of Rights includes ten amendments and was created after the Constitution to ensure liberty (freedom within a society) for all citizens. The second amendment states that a militia is necessary for the security of the nation, and citizens have the right to own arms to be prepared to form a militia. People use the second amendment to defend the right of American citizens to own any type of weapon or amunition, but only the ending phrase of the amendment is used as evidence, while the rest is ignored. The meaning of the second amendment does not support the idea that Americans have the right to own any weapon of their choosing. Thus, the second amendment can no longer be used as justification for all gun ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The second amendment from the Bill of Rights.
*from billofrightsinstitute.org<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second amendment must be analyzed very closely to discover the correct message because the grammar of the sentence can be confusing. This phrase, \u201cbeing necessary to the security of a Free State\u201d explains why a militia might be formed and the following phrase \u201cthe right of the people to keep and bear Arms\u201d is also in reference to the militia, as it explains what having a militia would entail. The final phrase \u201cshall not be infringed\u201d is the action that applies to the militia, while the other phrases serve as descriptors. The second amendment is often used by gun advocates to defend their right to own any type of firearm or ammunition. People use the statement, \u201cthe right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,\u201d as evidence for being able to buy any sort of gun they want, such as semiautomatic and fully automatic weapons as well as armor-piercing bullets. However, the commas cannot be ignored in determining the meaning of the second amendment. The two phrases, \u201cbeing necessary to the security of a free State\u201d and \u201cthe right of the people to keep and bear Arms\u201d are defining terms of \u201ca well regulated militia\u201d and cannot stand on their own for individuals to interpret loosely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To gain stricter gun regulations, the second amendment must be\ninterpreted correctly in the same way by the entire American population. If\npeople continue to pick out part of the amendment and ignore the commas, the\nmeaning of the amendment will remain muddled, Commas were used deliberately to\nclarify the right to form well regulated militia. The second amendment should\nnot be as justification to buy any type of gun or ammunition for personal use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*billofrightsinstitute.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

V. Hajek The Constitution has served as the basis of our government since 1787, and it was created by America\u2019s founding fathers to lay out the system to run the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-guns","category-post-1-spring-2019","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}