Your 1st & 2nd Amendment Constitutional Rights

About this course

In the United States, we are a democracy governed by a constitution that establishes citizens' rights and limits the potential for governmental overreach. The key to Democracy is sunlight and more people understanding their constitutional rights, as to who is protected and what rights are supposed to be protected. Enlightenment provides the mind's nontangible power to influence others with facts rather than just passing on fear, as fear is the primary weapon of autocrats and dictators. This publication was developed to teach, change, or reinforce views of how the Constitution is designed to protect the rights of the people against an overzealous government. Hopefully, changed minds through intelligent dialogue may translate into changed votes as people learn to vote in their own best interests and recognize misinformation and hostile dialogue that divide workers and families, with no virtuous benefits bestowed on either side of the political spectrum. The Second Amendment was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. It was made enforceable by the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause and later against the states through selective incorporation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Until the late Twentieth century, the Second Amendment was about as popular as the Third Amendment (prohibition against billeting of soldiers), and was not necessarily a topical issue. The gun rights lobbies, including the National Rifle Association, however, used PR campaigns to make the Second Amendment a hot topic, accusing liberals of wanting to take everyone's guns away. Provisions, such as the Second Amendment, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments), are key to understanding the fundamentals of the United States' Constitutional rights. This series of essays, drawn from Wikipedia, provides a succinct two-hour review of the amendment's history, syntax, phrasing, and case law, as well as interpretations by the U.S. Circuit Courts, and how the understanding of the Second Amendmen