In my US history classes in junior high and high school, my teachers presented the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution as a political right.
When I was in college at Troy, one of our history textbooks flat out said the 2nd amendment did not guarantee a right to keep and bear arms.
I mentioned that I thought that was wrong. Dr. Smith privately agreed with me but said he did not want to get into it in his class.
We studied the 2nd Amendment (and all the Constitution) in both American History and Civics classes in the ‘60’s...
(Southern schools)
It was a real long time ago, but I think the lesson went like this.
1. The Articles of Confederation failed.
2. Some guys met in Philadelphia to fix the Articles and wrote a whole new “Constitution.”
3. Then they wrote ten amendments called the “Bill of Rights.”
4. The states ratified everything.
5. Hey, what did you think about Super Bowl III? Wasn’t that something how the underdog AFL New York Jets defeated the NFL Baltimore Colts? Joe Namath is amazing!
AR15’s are still in NY. It was first the devilish 10 round magazines that had to go. Then the pistol grips.
Problem is, they are so darn slippery, they just keep falling into the deepest part of the lake with crocodiles, piranhas and whirlpools all about.
It’s that eveeeeeel pistol grip I tell Ya!
Carried my 22 plinker on the public bus to shoot cans as a kid. Could get a Varsity Letter for the Rifle & Target team back in the day. And that’s not as far back as one might think.
And all of NY is NOT LIKE NY City and the UNCONSTITUTIONAL Sullivan Gun Laws.
Wonderful ranges, clubs and shooting sport opportunities in The Empire State.
I guess I was lucky, I had an advanced US History class that went in depth on the Constitution and the history surrounding it.
The American Revolution and the resulting Constitution were remarkable achievements in human history.
Deterrent!
With current and ex-hippies in charge of curriculum and/or class topics, the Bill of Rights, if it was mentioned at all, was in the following contexts:
1) Freedom of speech: you can wear armbands to school! Of course, nobody wore armbands and nobody cared to wear armbands and nobody ever wore one even as a gag. But the ‘armband’ story was told repeatedly in multiple grades, apparently as proof that school wasn’t as oppressive and retrograde as we thought (even though it was).
They were also big on talking of the Skokie Nazi march. As usual, the lazy will highlight the most extreme positions as proof that the Bill of Rights is inviolate despite the fact that we see infringement on a frequent even daily basis.
2) The 5th Amendment was almost always discussed in relation to drug possession and offenses. I’m not joking. ‘Paul you hold Mike’s bag of pot’ etc. etc. Cue giggling from students, about 1/3 of whom smoked pot of course. The 5th Amendment covers a lot of ground but our so-called educators couldn’t seem to look beyond the act of getting stoned.
It came up when I was in school in the late ‘70s, and was told that the Second Amendment protected the right of the states to maintain a militia. Not being the 2A advocate I am today, I did not challenge this, but I didn’t agree with it either.
I was in high school in the mid-to-late 1960s. We had Civics classes, where the Constitution and government were prominently discussed.
Tisk, tisk, she ended her sentence with a preposition!
It one 10 principals delineated by the bill of rights
no more, or less important than the others
I lucked up and went to a private school, where I learned these were God-given rights. I was also taught that we should consider the importance of the 2nd Amendment since it was the SECOND enumerated item, second only to the freedoms of speech and religion.....
I learned exactly what it says ... 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.
No political opinion ... just fact of what is says and what it means. It says nothing about hunting. Nothing about the progression of firearm capability. Only that we should be able to have them in case our government gets out of control just as England did back in the day.
I don’t remember it ever coming up.
I do remember some of our teachers going out to student’s cars or pick ups to look at and admire their new rifles.
We received directions to our ROTC shooting range in the basement of our school.
I well remember that we talked at great length about the words: “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED” and how the Second Amendment was critical to preserving the rest of the Amendments and our Constitution.
Then again, that was back in the day where it was not uncommon for hunting rifles and shotguns to be sitting in the trunk of almost every car or truck in the parking lot, during any of the various hunting seasons (Pheasant, Duck, rabbits, squirrels, deer, etc.) in our rural community. Right next to “Smoker’s Hill” as a matter of fact.
1. Fun!
2. To retain the right to defeat totalitarian government.
3. None of your business; it’s a perfected Right in the Bill of Rights.
4. Tell me what anyone needs the Free Speech for?
A compound modifier with an adverb, like “grmatically challenged,” does not take a hyphen,
Actually the Second Amendment was only mentioned 50 to 60 years ago. The only reference was that we had the right, with few exceptions, to keep and bear arms and that we may need to use them for defense of the nation and / or Constitution. Our WWII vet mentors taught us about how terrible war is and how necessary it can be but killing is to be profaned until absolutely necessary. As for what we were taught in school, it followed the same line.
We gave absolutely no thought at all to AR-15s or AK-47s or anything of the sort. Nobody had them because they weren’t around or felt they needed a combat type weapon including a fully auto M-1 carbine. Sure, we thought the Thompson was cool but it was for war not for what we needed to do. Arms training, for those of us that had it, was one shot and one kill. Spray and pray of any sort was frowned on and marksmanship and precision were prized. I never even fired a gun with a clip until I left home and bought one.
I hunted upland game birds just about every weekend during season from the time I was 5 and started with a Stevens bolt action 410 moving up to a double 12 at about that age. I was big for my age but was awfully tired at the end of a day’s hunt after packing that thing around but I got used to it. Never owned an automatic shot gun. Never found a use for more than two shots on a covey rise.
Bolt actions were favored for rifles and we knew the difference between different types of lock-ups. Even semi-automatics were scorned in our home. My .22 was an Ithica single shot drop block with iron sights of course. Scopes were something else we never had or thought we really needed. My little carry gun here on the farm is a Ruger 77 22 but it does now have a little scope as compensation for my aging eyes. Firepower was not in our vocabulary. I figured if my WWII combat vet family members were good with what we had I should be too.
I had a gun rack in my pickup in high school and carried a shotgun and often rifle since I may want to hunt before or after school. Other guys did the same thing. We nor anybody else gave a thought to what might happen.