By NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action
This week’s outrage comes to us from the state of Connecticut–the “Constitution State”–where a father says his son’s middle school curriculum is teaching that Americans don’t have the right to bear arms.
According to a FoxNews.com story, Steven Boibeaux’s son, a student a Northeast Middle School in Bristol, Conn., was given a social studies worksheet titled, “The Second Amendment Today.” The worksheet, published by Instructional Fair, claims that, “The courts have consistently determined that the Second Amendment does not ensure each individual the right to bear arms,” and that, “The courts have never found a law regulating the private ownership of weapons unconstitutional.”
If anyone had bothered to check, they would know that, in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court historically ruled in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment does indeed ensure an individual the right to bear arms, as our founding fathers wrote and intended.
The worksheet also asserts that Second Amendment rights “are not extended to the individual citizens of the states, so a person has no right to complain about a Second Amendment violation by state laws.” That is contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago.
The worksheet further concludes the Second Amendment “only provides the right of a state to keep an armed National Guard”–a view that no Supreme Court justice endorsed in either case.
“I am appalled,” said Mr. Boibeaux. “It sounds to me like they are trying to indoctrinate our kids. I’m more than a little upset about this. It’s not up to the teacher to determine what the Constitution means.”
The teacher also told the students that the Constitution is a “living document,” which, according to the worksheet, means “the interpretation changes to meet the needs of the times.”
“The judges and courts of each generation provide the interpretation of the document,” the worksheet states.
Mr. Boibeaux called that concept mind-boggling. We call it outrageous.
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