The Supreme Court's Gun Control Decision--A Safer America?

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution guarantees individuals the right to keep handguns in the home.

This overturned the strict gun control laws in Washington, D.C that effectively banned personal hand guns at home or in public places and required that rifles either be disassembled or have a trigger lock installed. The decision created the possibility of additional challenges to similar laws in other cities and states who are struggling to prevent growing gun violence and killings.

The Supreme Court last heard a Second Amendment case in 1939, when it upheld a federal ban on interstate transport of short-barreled shotguns. Since sawed-off shotguns had no "reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument," the court found then.

Ever since, most courts have seen the amendment as providing for weapons possession in connection with service in a militia, or its modern descendant, the state-run National Guard.

The decision stopped short of invalidating other local, state and federal gun regulations. The court also declined to hand legislators a blueprint for permissible gun regulations, acknowledging that the contours of the Second Amendment right, like other constitutional rights, will have to be mapped in litigation over the years to come.

Assign students to write a report of about 200 words, citing at least three resources and addressing at least three of the examples of essential questions for critical thinking listed below (you can create or substitute others). Students should either support the majority decision or the minority decision in their written report.

Pathfinder:
Click the Topics tab search, then type "gun control laws and the 2nd amendment and supreme court" in the Search box. Click Supreme Court decisions AND Firearm laws & regulations, then select View Documents.

Here is a list of essential questions for critical thinking that teachers can assign to their students (and/or create others).

• What evidence is there that gun control laws work?
• Why is the NRA always supportive of the right to carry guns without any regulation?
• What evidence is there that gun control laws don't work?
• Who supports gun control laws and what are their major arguments?
• Who supports unrestricted 2nd Amendment rights and what are their major arguments?
• What impact will the Supreme Court's decision have on safety in America and why?

These are examples of questions that motivate critical thinking and help students go beyond the typical "who, what, when, and where" type of questions generally associated with student research assignments. Teachers can and should create additional Essential Questions based on the interests of their students.




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