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Second Amendment

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Submitted By creaxe
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Eng 101

30 May 2012
A Case for the Second Amendment

The second amendment frequently finds itself under attack on many fronts. Some of these attacks are rooted in fear, others in ignorance, but in all cases they must be defeated in order to insure the continued existence of freedom and liberty within our country. The second amendment must not be infringed upon, or our nation shall fall as democracies always do; to the sound of thunderous applause.

When does the constitution stop and state law begin? The tenth amendment provides in clear language that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.“ What does this mean exactly? In its most basic form, the language states that if the constitution provides for something as an inalienable right, then the states have no power to step on it. Therefore, as the second amendment states, “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.” So, with the double stack of the tenth amendment providing that the states cannot overrule the Constitution, and with the second amendment being notable here for it being the only use of the phrase “being necessary” in the entire constitution, any argument that the founding fathers “didn't mean it like that” becomes completely invalid.

Another common attack against the second amendment is a perceived drop in violent crime in states which have tight regulations regarding the ownership and use of firearms. According to the Brady Campaign, which provides scorecards for states according to how stringent their control laws are, the state with the 'best' score is California with a score of 81 of 100 possible points. For contrast, the state with the 'worst' score is

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