Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Treat the following as a reading comprehension problem. Forget the history. Forget the Supreme Court interpretations. Forget the press articles. Forget, even, the consequences. Read the following quote, and specify what the authors intended. The three basic questions are who can bear what, and why.
"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."
1) It is the right of whom to keep and bear arms?
Federal Standing
Armies
State Standing Armies
The Militia
The People
The Supreme Court decides
depending on the culture and mood of a given decade.
None of the above. The
Bill of Rights is obsolete, and should be ignored.
2) To what extent can Congress infringe upon the Right to keep and bear Arms?
They may regulate weapon
size to prevent easily concealed weapons.
They may regulate number
of shots fired per burst.
They may regulate the
size of magazines.
They may regulate the
size of personal arsenals.
All of the above.
No infringing.
3) How important is an armed and trained population to the security of a free state?
Very Important
Kind of Important
Necessary
Not Important
Armed citizens are a
threat to the security of a free state.
OK, so the questions above are loaded. For extra bonus points,
load at least one question the other way. See if you can ask a
reading comprehension question that produces a bias for a pro gun
control answer? I may even post a few winning questions.
I did get an interesting question in the above essay form. Alas, the sender did not provide a set of multiple choice answers. These I provided. Would anyone care to suggest an alternate set of answers? The following isn't a reading comprehension question applying to the Second Amendment only. Answering requires a working knowledge of the Constitution. Alternately, one might possibly be able to guess from the wording of the question, the answer anticipated by the guy grading the quiz... ;-)
4) Who regulates the militia?
The US Congress
has the power to specify a mandatory militia training program.
The states have the
power to appoint militia officers.
The Congress may
call up the militia to enforce laws, suppress rebellion and repel
invasions.
Once Congress
calls up the militia, the president may exercise his authority as
Commander in Chief.
State constitutions
define local authority to call up and exercise command over the
militia.
All of the above.
None of the above. The
mere possession of arms is sufficient for a free people to handle
any emergency. Training, discipline and coordination are
superfluous and unnecessary.