Annotated Bibliography Notes

Fill in the notes for the amendment and for each of the three categories (multi-
media, contemporary cases, advocacy documents). If you need support for the
citation, consult the MLA Formatting Guide you printed from the lesson.

Your topic: The Bill of Rights Amendment

What amendment did you choose for your topic? Include the number and
the amendment text.

I chose 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."
MLA Citation for the Bill of Rights (official government site): I don’t know
what I’m being asked for here.

What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
I searched MLA Citation, and didn’t get anything useful.
 
 
 
How does this source support your topic?
 
 It doesn’t, I wasn’t able to get anything useful out of this source.
 
What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?
 
 
 As I stated in my previous text, none of it.
One Multi-Media Resource
(video, slideshow, audio file, or infographic that relates to your
Amendment)

Citation
“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.”
 
 
What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
 
 This source states what the second amendment is.
How does this source support your topic?

This source gives it’s viewer a simple understanding as to what the second
amendment is.
What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?
The video makes it apparent that the second amendment can have two
interpretations. This source would be a good way to transition from introducing
the second amendment to introducing the Courts ruling in Heller v. District of
Columbia.

Two Contemporary Case Resources

(two articles on two recent court cases that presented a ruling regarding your
chosen Amendment)

Name of court case #1: JAIME CAETANO v. MASSACHUSETTS

Date of ruling:
March 21st 2016
Title of resource #1:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/03/johannes-paulsen/392843/
Citation Information:
 In the first example of the Court’s post-Scalia jurisprudence on guns, the United
States Supreme Court today threw out a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
decision that stun guns were not covered under the meaning of the Second
Amendment’s protection of the individual right to keep and bear arms because
they are “dangerous and unusual” devices that didn’t exist at the time the 2A was
drafted . . .
 

What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
The Supreme Court today threw out a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court decision.

 
 
 
How does this source support your topic?
 
 
 This source verifies that the second amendment has purpose, and that by
allowing healthy citizens to bear arms has and can save lives.
What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?
 This article proves that people without means to defend themselves can easily
do so with the assistance of a firearm.
Name of court case #2 :McDonald v. Chicago
Date of ruling:

 June 28th 2010

Title of resource #2:
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/rpt/2010-R-0314.htm
Citation Information:
 In a five-four split decision, the McDonald Court held that an individual's right to
keep and bear arms is incorporated and applicable to the states through the 14th
Amendment's Due Process Clause. Writing for the majority, Justice Alito
observed: “It is clear that the Framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment
counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights
necessary to our system of ordered liberty” (p. 31). “The Fourteenth Amendment
makes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms fully applicable to
the States.”
 
 
What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
 The ruling of Heller v. District of Colombia is applicable not only to the federal
government but the states as well.
 
 
How does this source support your topic?
 This source proves that the second amendment applies not only to the federal
government but the state governments as well.
 What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?
 
 The part where it indicates that the second amendment applies to the states.
Two Advocacy Resources
(two documents or articles that include statements from presidents,
politicians, or advocates supporting your chosen Amendment )

Title of resource #1: Quote from The Federalist. No. 46

Citation Information:
 
 : “[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans
possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments
are afraid to trust the people with arms.” ― James Madison January 29th, 1788
 
What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
 This quote from the fourth president of the United States mentions that
Americans have the advantage of being armed over the people of almost every
nation.
 
 
How does this source support your topic?
 By saying that the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms, James
Madison clarifies that the second amendment was meant for the people and not
for the state government.
 
 
What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?
 
 The distinction made between government and people.
 
Title of resource #2:
George Washington’s first address to congress quote.
Citation Information:
 
 A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform
and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they
should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of
others for essential, particularly military, supplies. –George Washington January
8th 1790.
 
What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
 “A free people ought not only to be armed… independent of others for essential,
particularly military, supplies.”
 
 
How does this source support your topic?
 In saying that free people shouldn’t be reliant on others for military supplies,
George Washington expressed that people shouldn’t just be armed, but not rely
on others to be armed.

 
 
What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?
 The part where people shouldn’t be reliant on others for military supplies, it
reinforces the view point that the right to bear arms was meant to be an individual
right and not a collective right.
 
 
Two Landmark Case Resources
(two documents or articles about one landmark case that presented an
important ruling regarding your chosen Amendment)

Name of landmark case: District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008)
Date of ruling: June 26th 2008

Title of resource #1:

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2007/07-290
Citation Information:
 
 The ban on registering handguns and the requirement to keep guns in the home
disassembled or nonfunctional with a trigger lock mechanism violate the Second
Amendment…. Therefore, banning handguns, an entire class of arms that is
commonly used for protection purposes, and prohibiting firearms from being kept
functional in the home, the area traditionally in need of protection, violates the
Second Amendment.
 
What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
 The Supreme Court ruled that the second amendment was not meant to be a
collective right, but a right for individuals to own firearms.
 
 
How does this source support your topic?
 This source marks a definite interpretation of the second amendment, because
prior to this case, the second amendment was thought to be a collective right,
which would limit the ability of individuals to protect themselves or their homes.
 
 
What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?
 
 The decision’s made by the court after going over the case.
 
Title of resource #2:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/right-own-gun-under-heller-
30295.html

Citation Information:
 For many years, scholars and anti-gun proponents had argued that the Second
Amendment provides a right to own guns only in connection with service in a
militia, and that this right should not extend to private individuals. The Heller
Court rejected that line of argument. It held that the Second Amendment creates
an individual right to possess a gun for self-defense, at least in the home.

What information from this source seems the most important? Note key
points mentioned in the source.
 This article highlights the significance of the court ruling. “It held that the Second
Amendment creates an individual right to possess a gun for self-defense, at least
in the home.”
How does this source support your topic?
This source explains what the court ruling means for the second amendment.
What information from this source would be most useful to include in your
informative/explanatory article?

The part where it mentions that scholars and anti-gun proponents had argued the
Second Amendment for many years, and that this case is used as a precedent
for other cases because the court agrees with its ruling.