GUNS ARE FUN!!! (President Hughes edition)

                Today in Western Civilization we continued looking at and discussing the Constitution and its amendments. Before class started Mr. Schick came over to me and asked if I wanted to be a ‘guest speaker’ and speak about the Second Amendment (I think those should be capitalized, but I’m not sure). I said yes, not remembering what the Second Amendment was about at the time, and waited for class to start. When class started, I got up and went to the front of the class and summarized what the Second Amendment was about (I would’ve made more jokes but there was another teacher in the room supervising, and since I didn’t get to say it earlier, GUNS ARE FUN!). After that we discussed why it was written the way it was, how the militia part of it didn’t apply in this time, and I answered a couple of questions about gun regulations, which I didn’t know too much about surprisingly. The rest of my family doesn’t talk about guns that often, but we do support the right to carry them. My grandparents on my dad’s side lean farther right than I do (My grandpa was in the Vietnam war, so he is military and is a very do-it yourself person, I think you’d like him. No surprise about the gun part there.). I think that having weapons in the right hands can be a good thing when it comes to self-defense or upholding moral standards (fancy terminology for what the police do), but there is a definite risk factor with allowing just anyone to buy guns. After my brief stint as guest speaker I returned to my desk and we continued through the amendments. The 3^rd amendment basically terminated the Quartering Act, the 4^th speaks of no unreasonable search or seizure of property, the 5^th speaks of fairness towards criminals on trial, where no person can be tried for the same crime twice, no one will attest against themselves in court (they will always get an attorney), and that people are innocent until proven guilty. The 5^th also states that trials will be public and speedy, so no one waits excessive amounts of time for their trial, and they will be public so they are fair. The 7^th states that you can ask for a jury trial for on a petty case (less than $20 dollars’ worth) but you will always get a jury trial for more than $20 dollars’ worth or in a serious trial (felony). The 8^th amendment says that there will be no excessive bails or cruel punishments.