Normally my Civics columns are cut and dry. It’s sort of like going to school for the time it takes you to read my column. A lot of what I share is a refresher course for me, because it’s been many years since I was a student. I’ve forgotten some of that stuff we learned about America back in the 1970s. Plus, some of what we were taught was a pile of lies. In a lot of cases, I’m learning things about our laws and voting and ways to get involved in a meaningful way in our communities that I never knew before. A lot of the information I share, I myself am gathering from various authenticated websites that specialize in the U.S. Constitution, etc. As I shared, I dispense a lot of cut-and-dry information that is important. But this isn’t a “touchy-feely” column at all.
Today is different. What has happened in America over the last 10-12 days with these two most recent mass murders changes everything. Bear with me. My civics column is a bit different today.
The horrific murder of 19 children and two teachers in cold blood on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in a small town in Texas (Uvalde) at the hands of an 18-year-old gunman has devastated our nation once again. A week prior to this tragedy, 10 African Americans were shot dead in a Buffalo, New York Supermarket, also at the hands of an 18-year-old gunman. When does it stop? When will all this senseless loss of life end? And why must babies have to pay the price just for being where they’re supposed to be, in school?
On behalf of the SCOOP USA owner and publisher, Sherri Darden and all of the staff of the SCOOP USA, we send our heartfelt condolences to all the families of the victims of the mass murders in New York, the mass murders in Texas and all others. This is not the America I grew up in.
These two most recent mass murders in America bring me to the point of today’s civics lesson. Let’s take a look at what the United States Constitution has to say about “bearing arms.”
The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791, along with nine other articles of the Bill of Rights.
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court affirmed for the first time that the right belongs to individuals, for self-defense in the home, while also including, as dicta, that the right is not unlimited and does not preclude the existence of certain longstanding prohibitions, such as those forbidding “the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill” or restrictions on “the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.”
In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing upon this right.
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Thank you for reading Thera Martin’s article on scoopnewsusa.com. For more on “What does the U.S. Constitution say about guns”, please subscribe to SCOOP USA Media. Print subscriptions are $75 and online subscriptions (Print, Digital, and VIZION) are $90. (52 weeks / 1 year).
