The Right to Bear Arms

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Justices May Hear Second Amendment Case." The article begins, "Both sides in a closely watched legal battle over the District of Columbia’s strict gun-control law are urging the Supreme Court to hear the case. If the justices agree — a step they may announce as early as Tuesday — the Roberts court is likely to find itself back on the front lines of the culture wars with an intensity unmatched even by the cases on abortion and race that defined the court’s last term." The article reports, "The Supreme Court has never answered the Second Amendment question directly, and it has been nearly 70 years since the court even approached it obliquely. A decision in 1939, United States v. Miller, held that a sawed-off shotgun was not one of the 'arms' to which the Second Amendment referred in its single, densely written, and oddly punctuated sentence: '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.'”

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• Do students think that they should be allowed to bring toys from home to school? Why/why not? Ask students if they can think of any reasons why they should not be allowed to bring toys from home to school. Can they think of any reasons why they should be allowed to do so?
  
• As a class consider developing a rule specifying whether or not toys should be allowed to be brought to school, from home.
  
• Ask students if they have ever been asked to make a decision that they did not want to make? What decision were they asked to make? Why did they not want to make the decision? What happened in the end?
  
• The class might develop a collaborative story about somebody who does not want to make a decision about something.
  
• Tell students that a certain type of horn exists that could really hurt people's ears if blown in their ears. Ask them to imagine that in the past children have sometimes blown the horn for fun, not knowing what kind of harm it could cause, and hurt people very badly. Do students think that children should be allowed to play with these horns? Why/why not? It's possible if adults leave these horns in their homes that children would be able to get to them and play with them. Do students think that people should be allowed to keep these horns in their homes? Why/why not?
• As a class consider putting the issue of horn ownership on trial. Individual groups could decide whether or not individuals should be allowed to keep the horn in their home, and then report back to the whole class.
  
• Ask students what it means to follow a rule. Can students think of any rules that they follow because they have to, but they have a very hard time following the rule? Ask them to give examples. Ask students if they think that the rule is a good rule. Why/why not?
• Students might develop skits demonstrating that it is sometimes difficult to follow rules.
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Obliquely; Collective; Libertarian; and, Polarized.
  
• Do students think that the United States Supreme Court has a responsibility to hear the case and decide whether or not people should be allowed to own guns? Why/why not? What reasons might the Court, as a whole, have for not hearing the case if they choose not to hear it?
  
• Students might write letters to the U.S. Supreme Court indicating whether or not the Court has an obligation to hear this case.
  
• Ask students to develop a metaphor to explain the current tension that exists in the United States as to whether or not private citizens should be allowed to own guns.
• Students could develop these metaphors in groups of two or three and then report back to the class.
  
• What is the difference between "literal meaning" and "interpretation"? Do students think that the framers of the United States Constitution ever thought about whether or not individual citizens who were not enlisted in a militia should be allowed to own guns? Why/why not? Do students think that the framers would have allowed individual citizens to own guns? Why/why not? Should the framers intentions matter today? Why/why not? What does it mean for a document to be a "living text?" Could individuals who argue that the framers intentions do matter, accept the Constitution as a living text? Why/why not?
• These questions might prompt an interesting class discussion.