The Civics Guide

The Most Contested Twenty-Seven Words 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 other amendment generates more heat and less light. Gun rights advocates treat it as an absolute guarantee of individual firearm ownership. Gun control advocates treat the prefatory clause—“A well regulated Militia”—as a limiting condition that narrows the right to organized military service. Both sides quote the same sentence and hear completely different meanings. ...

“If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” — Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801 What It Actually Says 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. ...