Teaching the 2nd Amendment to Gifted Students

Avoid Letting Gun Rights Become a Loaded Issue

Oct 26, 2009

When teaching a controversial topic, teachers should allow students expansive room to draw their own conclusions.

With the possible exception of the death penalty debates that naturally arise when studying the 8th amendment, no portion of the Bill of Rights is as controversial as the 2nd amendment. When introducing the amendment to gifted students as part of a Justice unit, teachers must:

Understanding the 2nd Amendment

It is important that students read the whole amendment, and that they are able to construct the intention of the phrases and clauses within the grammatical structure of the 2nd amendment. If ever there was an example of the significance of the use of commas, it is in the 2nd amendment, which reads:

“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.”

Court Cases Related to the Second Amendment

When students read the amendment, often they will ask why they are not allowed to bring guns to school. Many of today's teachers attended high schools where people kept weapons for after-school deer hunting and left them in their trucks during the school day. The habits of yesterday are crimes today, and any student who brought a gun for after-school hunting would be suspended, at the very least. One of the first things teachers should do as the class deconstructs the amendment is to determine who the amendment is talking about, and the best way to do that is to look at Supreme Court cases related to the amendment.

With the Supreme Court's acceptance of recent cases, students are able to see current videos on Youtube and follow the case as newsworthy current events.

How Teaching the 2nd Amendment Differs from Teaching the Other Amendments

When teaching most amendments, it is easy for teachers to present a common-ground view and acknowledge the multiple view-points. With the first amendment, people agree that ideas need to be expressed, but there is controversy on what is protected levels of speech. With the fourth amendment, people agree that security and privacy is needed, but there is controversy on which demands greater respect. With the second amendment, some people believe citizens should be extraordinarily pacifistic, and others believe that access to weapons should be unrestricted. Teachers should present the laws of their home states and note any on-going controversies.

It is important to present a historical context for the 2nd amendment. Through the case of United States vs. Miller, students can see that at that point, the Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment as a law designed to respect the need for private citizens to be in an armed militia. Through later cases, students can see that the Supreme Court reinterprets the amendment to include personal rights.

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