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Akhil Reed Amar, Second Thoughts

Akhil Reed Amar, Second Thoughts

Read Second Thoughts and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.

1. What event happened at Littleton?

the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007

the University of Texas massacre in April 1966

the Amish school massacre in October 2006

the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999

2. Which amendment to the Constitution concerns the right to bear arms?

the Thirteenth Amendment

the First Amendment

the Ninth Amendment

the Second Amendment

3. Which group of people read the word “militia” in the gun amendment to mean “the government”?

conservatives

communitarians

liberals

statists

4. How did the Founders view a standing army during peacetime?

They accepted it as a necessary evil.

They believed that being in the army was a patriotic right, duty, and privilege.

They believed that a standing army was a necessary step toward independence.

They regarded it with dread, as the “Other”—mercenaries, convicts, vagrants, aliens.

5. What did the writers of the Fourteenth Amendment believe?

They recognized the need for both blacks and whites to carry guns in the volatile South.

Government could regulate even the ownership of guns for self-protection.

No government at any level had the right to violate any fundamental rights of individuals.

They believed that Grant and Sherman were outlaws.