Question

The Second Amendment is an important part of the Constitution. For this assignment you will need to read the Second Amendment and the secondary source Know Your Rights: A Guide to the United States Constitution to help you answer the following prompt:

“Does the text of the Second Amendment mean that the right to 'bear arms' is unlimited?”
As you prepare to answer this prompt you should follow the format provided below.
Paragraph 1 - Analyze the text of the Second Amendment for yourselves. In order to analyze you should look at each word in the amendment and decide how each part of the amendment relates to the prompt.
Paragraph 2 - Summarize and cite the ideas and information from the secondary sources to provide support for your conclusion in paragraph 1.
Paragraph 3 – Summarize and cite the ideas and information in the secondary sources that go against your conclusions in paragraph 1.
Paragraph 4 – Write an analysis about the strength of the arguments that support or counter their own opinions. You will need to provide an explanation of your thinking about which opinions are stronger by citing specific textual evidence out of the primary and secondary sources.

Answer 1

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. HELLER

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

No. 07–290. Argued March 18, 2008—Decided June 26, 2008

District of Columbia law bans handgun possession by making it a crime

to carry an unregistered firearm and prohibiting the registration of

handguns; provides separately that no person may carry an unlicensed handgun, but authorizes the police chief to issue 1-year licenses; and requires residents to keep lawfully owned firearms

unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device. Respondent Heller, a D. C. special policeman, applied to register a handgun he wished to keep at home, but the District refused.

He filed this suit seeking, on Second Amendment grounds, to enjoin

the city from enforcing the bar on handgun registration, the licensing

requirement insofar as it prohibits carrying an unlicensed firearm in

the home, and the trigger-lock requirement insofar as it prohibits the

use of functional firearms in the home. The District Court dismissed

the suit, but the D. C. Circuit reversed, holding that the Second

Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess firearms and

that the city’s total ban on handguns, as well as its requirement that

firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional even when necessary for

Step-by-step explanation: