Founding Fathers and 8th Amendment
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When asked to explain the reasons why the Founding Fathers wanted to include the 2nd and 8th Amendments in the Bill of Rights, I was first telling myself that this is going to be an easy task to accomplish and it wouldnt take much time or effort. I was completely wrong; there were many steps I had to take and many points of views that I had to look at. The founding fathers consisted of seven individuals who were key parts of establishing the United States Constitution. These seven men were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. All of the men have similar if not all the same views towards England and had to come up with a set of rules or liberties that every citizen of the United States had. The first ten amendments of the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. There were two amendments that stood out to me as being very interesting and ones that could go into great detail. Those two amendments were the second and eighth. The second amendment of the United States constitution states that “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.” The eighth amendment of the United States Constitution states that “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The Bill of Rights is defined as “a statement of the rights of a class of people, in particular.” The Bill of Rights is the rights of people who are citizens of the United States of America. Every citizen of the United States are entitled to the Bill of Rights as sort of their “backbone”, they always have it to lean back on. There are ten amendments that are formal summaries of those rights and liberties considered essential to a people or group of people.
There could have been many reasons to explain why the Founding Fathers would include the second Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The Founding Fathers wanted change. Whether it was change from the old English rules or just change in leaders, the Founding Fathers wanted something they had never had, freedom. If they had freedom in England, there might have not been a United States of America. Once we had finally defeated the British forces, we had to become our own society and giving each citizen of our country the rights and liberties was a good place to start. What would make the United States of America different from England and their strict leadership? If the British people had the rights and liberties that we have here in the United States, there might have been a different leader in power. The second amendment in the Bill of Rights explains that the citizens have the right to bear Arms (guns). This gave Americans a sense of security that if any enemy forces tried to seize the militias arms that they could defend themselves along with their countries. A good historical example is when the British forces marched into Lexington and Concord with one mission and one mission only, to seize the Americans arms. From this you can see a distinct connection between firearms and freedoms when it comes to Americans. Firearms gave us freedom so why can we not have our own guns? Times have changed, with school shootings, and many people would like to see many different types of laws passed for gun restrictions. People feel a lack of safety even with guns in their homes. People feel that the wrong types of people can gain control of guns and ammunition and in the end, can harm themselves or people around them. One restriction that was passed was a convicted felon cannot apply for a gun permit. It has been determined that if you are a felon, you have already made your mistakes and you cannot have a second chance. It has now become more and more difficult for someone who was convicted of a DUI to apply for a gun. There are more and more restrictions being put in place to restrict the purchasing of guns legally. When people think about guns most of them will feel safe with one in their possession. But what happens when multiple people in the same area have guns on them? There can be a sense of insecurity and lack of security. The Founding Fathers had also looked around at the world, especially the tyranny going on in England. Bearing arms in the United States also gave citizens opportunities to not allow tyranny to occur in America. Every political figure knows that to impose the governments will on the people you must disarm them. It was a counter balance to the power of the federal government and personal protection when the federal militia isnt present. Thomas Jefferson did not want tyranny in the government, as this is “The Land of the Free.” Thomas Jefferson proclaimed two key quotes that caught my eye when talking about the second Amendment:
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”