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Teaching the Right to Bear Arms

Say hello to controversy.

  • Activities: 5
  • Quiz Questions: 32

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You won't find any machine gun-toting grizzlies here—the right to arm bears is a different lesson entirely. The right to bear arms is about the second amendment and one of the most contentious.

In this guide you will find

  • activities analyzing data on gun ownership and violent crime.
  • lessons exploring firearms' place in American culture.
  • articles exploring the always-prominent debate surrounding the amendment.

We advocate the right to bear knowledge, so you've got that covered.

What's Inside Shmoop's Civics Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring civics to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 4-10 Common Core-aligned activities (including quotation, image, and document analysis) to complete in class with your students, with detailed instructions for you and your students. 
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students.
  • Reading quizzes to be sure students are looking at the material through various lenses.
  • Resources to help make the topic feel more relevant to your 21st-century students.
  • A note from Shmoop's teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the topic and how you can overcome the hurdles.

Want more help teaching Teaching the Right to Bear Arms?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: Plenty of people have a distorted understanding of the language, and perhaps meaning, of the Second Amendment. In this exercise you will lead your students through an analysis of the text itself.  

They will respond to a series of questions (verbally or on paper) and re-draft the amendment so that various interpretations of the Second Amendment are made more clear.

Length of Lesson: One class period.

Materials Needed:

  • Text of the Second Amendment, provided below
  • (Optional) Chart paper & markers or whiteboard space for 4-6 groups

Step One: Show your students the text of the Second Amendment (below) and lead them through the following questions.

The Second Amendment

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. How would you interpret this amendment?
  2. Why are there two clauses? What is the relationship between them?
  3. Does re-arranging the clauses change the meaning?
    • The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state.
  4. What if we turned this sentence into two sentences? Does the meaning change?
    • A well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
  5. What is the militia? Who belongs to the militia? Who does not belong to the militia?
  6. Who are “the people”? Are “the people” and the militia the same?
  7. What is the difference between a militia and a well regulated militia?
  8. Is there a difference between owning and using guns and keeping and bearing arms?

Step Two: Divide students into small groups of 3-5 students. Ask each group to develop two alternative drafts of the Second Amendment in response to the following questions.

  • If the framers of the Second Amendment wanted to guarantee everyone an unqualified right to use guns for a wide range of purposes (self-defense, hunting, target practice, etc.) how might they have phrased the amendment differently?
  • If the framers of the Second Amendment wanted to guarantee only the right of states to form militias, how might they have phrased the amendment differently?

Step Three: Bring the class back together and debrief their drafts. Work together to choose one best draft for each of the stated purposes.

Step Four: Ask students to take some time to reflect (individually) upon the two versions of the Second Amendment drafted by the class. Then give them 8-10 minutes to respond in writing to the questions below. 

  • Do either of these capture the intentions of the Second Amendment’s framers?
  • What exactly, do you think, the Second Amendment was intended to protect?
  • Re-draft the amendment so that your interpretation of its meaning is absolutely clear.

Step Five: To close, have students share ideas from their writing with the class and/or hand them in.

(Lesson aligned with CA 12th grade American government standards 12.2.1)

Instructions for Your Students

Could this be what the framers really meant? Uh... probably not. 

Okay. Definitely not. 

Today, you'll be working with your teacher and classmates to determine what the Second Amendment says, and how you think it was intended to be interpreted. 

(And then if you want to go home and put on your bear arms, feel free.)  

Step One: Take a look at the text of the Second Amendment (below) and discuss the following questions with your teacher and classmates.

The Second Amendment

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. How would you interpret this amendment?
  2. Why are there two clauses? What is the relationship between them?
  3. Does re-arranging the clauses change the meaning?
    • The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed, a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state.
  4. What if we turned this sentence into two sentences? Does the meaning change?
    • A well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
  5. What is the militia? Who belongs to the militia? Who does not belong to the militia?
  6. Who are “the people”? Are “the people” and the militia the same?
  7. What is the difference between a militia and a well regulated militia?
  8. Is there a difference between owning and using guns and keeping and bearing arms?

Step Two: Divide into small groups of 3-5. Work with your group to develop two alternative drafts of the Second Amendment in response to the following questions.

  • If the framers of the Second Amendment wanted to guarantee everyone an unqualified right to use guns for a wide range of purposes (self-defense, hunting, target practice, etc.) how might they have phrased the amendment differently?
  • If the framers of the Second Amendment wanted to guarantee only the right of states to form militias, how might they have phrased the amendment differently?

Step Three: Get back together with the rest of the class and debrief. Work with your teacher and classmates to choose one best draft for each of the stated purposes.

Step Four: Take some time (on your own now—not with your group) to reflect upon the two versions of the Second Amendment drafted by the class. Then take 8-10 minutes to respond in writing to the questions below. 

  • Do either of these capture the intentions of the Second Amendment’s framers?
  • What exactly, do you think, the Second Amendment was intended to protect?
  • Re-draft the amendment so that your interpretation of its meaning is absolutely clear.

Step Five: Share ideas from your writing with your classmates and listen to what they came up with.