Friday, September 20, 2013

H.S. textbooks misstate Second Amendment rights

High School textbooks in at least two states (S.C. and TX), misstate the Supreme Court- approved Second Amendment rule. The  books state that the Amendment only protects the rights of those who are members of the militia.  This is contrary to what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago.  Is this incompetence or is it ideologically motivated?  I still see lots of posts and letters from people who have probably never read either decision, limiting the right to militia members.  Ignorance is bliss for some. Our Bill of Rights is arguable the most important legal document in the land.  It's easy to defeat rights if people don't know they exist.  If you don't like the current interpretation of the Second Amendment, don't lie about it, propose an amendment.

3 comments:

  1. I saw this same refernce on a Facebook post. Apparently the textbooks were attempting to abbreviate the amendments to make them more understandable. In my opinion, the 2nd amendment does not need abbreviating. The textbook author/editor was interjecting their own personal interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. I would like to believe it was finalized because of a lazy editorial system, but having seen the liberalization of the public education system, I don't think so.

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  2. I concur with Hamster. There is a partial truth to the militia part, but it's secondary to people's fundamental individual right to keep and bear arms. Besides defending state and country, other specific reasons spelled out in founding documents were self-defense and hunting. " ...and no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes committed ..." and/or individual(s) known to be a public threat.

    Quote from the Pennsylvania Minority in December, 1787. The anti-federalist papers and constitutional convention debates, Ed. by R. Ketcham, Signet classic, 2003

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  3. Given that the Left generally controls the media and public education, any dumbing down will be left-leaning.

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