Amendment II

Amendment II

“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.”

This amendment guarantees American citizens the right to buy and carry guns to protect themselves and their families. Now there are several laws that prohibit any and everybody from carrying guns. There also regulations as to who is allowed, and who is not allowed to carry guns. Personally, I am glad that we have an amendment that protects our right to legally carry handguns because I will soon own a handgun and my father is a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). I grew up in a violent area where it was necessary to own a handgun as a means of protection because it usually took police hours to arrive at a crime scene.  Although there has been controversy surrounding whether or not certain guns should be allowed and whether or not they should be kept unloaded, the Court has upheld that citizens have the right to possess handguns.

This video clip is of a reporter talking
to radio show host, Alex Jones about his comments regarding banning of gun control. Alex breaks down the Second Amendment and explains why it is necessary to maintain gun control I America and why, he believes, the new administration wants to ban guns. This video represents the conspiracy-theorist beliefs of quite a few Americans who believe the government is trying to enslave the people. It is interesting how the reporter says that critics and politicians say that the Second Amendment is referring to only the Militia, noting that the amendment starts off by saying “A well regulated Militia…” which supposedly means the military and the government is supposed to protect the people. This is an example of how the amendments can be interpreted in different ways.

This video is a representation of the less radical side of Obama on gun control. There have been many to say that Pres. Obama is going to gun bans and that he is heading the New World Order (the same things were said about G.W. Bush), but I do not necessarily believe this. I believe that Obama wants to administer gun control for those who misuse guns. This video also talks about the lift on the handgun ban in Washington, D.C. In 2008, the Court voted in D.C. v Heller that the gun ban was unconstitutional. I think it would be difficult to ban handguns entirely, but I believe that the government is corrupt and that it is possible to persuade citizens to do things and behave in ways that are undoubtedly questionable.

Amendment I

Amendment I

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This amendment establishes rights of American citizens that the British settlers didn’t have in Great Britain. It protects the people from having a national church that they have to belong to; it also protects the people from not being able speak freely, practice their chosen religion, and peacefully protest and petition the government.

I believe this amendment is fundamental to the identity of our country because it is in the forefront of things that define our country. We are known as the ‘Land of the Free’ and this is a major reason why. We have rights in this amendment that many countries do not have. He can state that we don’t agree with laws or the government and we can even petition laws to be passed without fear of retaliation from our government.

I chose this video because it is an example of the freedom of speech we, as Americans have. If our nation had an established religion you couldn't speak out against, then this video wouldn't be possible or this man would be prosecuted. In countries like Germany a lot of material is censored and people have to create blogs through US internet because they are not allowed to talk openly about their support of racism or hate.

 This video was created in response to the video, "Google: What Does Free Expression Mean to You?" This video claims that Google/YouTube participates in censoring and deleting material, blocking websites, and restricting citizens' use of internet. I wanted to display this video to show that in countries such as China, freedom of speech and of the press is not heard of. Websites are blocked by the government. In order to keep the revenue from China, Google works with China's government to block certain sites, often result in error messages and down servers. I think this is a perfect example of how the internet would be in America if there was no First Amendment.  However, I do feel that the American Government does not tell its citizens all that they need to know(i.e. the government led many to believe we were at war searching for weapons of mass destruction, only to find there were none...other that what WE sold to Sadaam).