RESEARCH PAPERGun Fight—The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America

The battle over the Second Amendment’s right to ‘bear arms’ and one’s right to be free from unnecessary harm or danger in the United States is often misunderstood, misinterpreted and/or misstated in today’s divisive gun control versus gun right society. As part of your GOVT 2306 class over Texas Government with me, I want you to have a greater understanding of the realities behind today’s ‘gun fight’ climate—the historical context in which laws were written, the racism and backlashes resulting from gun control efforts during different eras (on and from all sides), and the politics driving the propaganda behind the two main sides of this issue in the United States. Ultimately, I hope you see that this issue has been literally and figuratively framed as black and white, but a strong dose of reality tells us that it is very grey. While your shade of grey is lighter than some and darker than others, I want you to come out of this assignment with an appreciation of our nation’s gun history and of others’ opinions, an understanding of the political climate of the gun issue in Texas, and the ability to express your opinion with sound reasoning instead of sound-bites. If not, well, at least you’ve completed one more assignment required to pass GOVT 2306.

Here are a few of my requirements for your paper: 1” margins on all four sides; the text of your paper should be double-spaced, except for longer quotes (see below), endnotes, and the bibliography; use Times New Roman or Book Antiqua 12 font; in your footer on one line in size 7 font on every page, “Your Last Name, Dyer—LSC Cy-Fair, GOVT 2306” (starting at the left margin) and “Page __ of __” to designate where I am in your paper on every page (at the right margin) [see below]; each new paragraph should be indented on the first line only by 0.5”; reference all statistics, unusual facts, quotes or any beliefs attributed to a specific person in endnotes (not footnotes); the first time anything is cited in an endnote, use the full citation, and thereafter, you may use “Id.” or “See id.” as appropriate, or short-cite with an author’s name and state the page number (i.e., Winkler at 744); if you quote something less than 25 words long, you may include it in your regular paragraph with quotation marks around it and an endnote reference at the end; if a quote is 25 words or more, please offset and indent the quote by a half-inch on the left and right on the next line (single-spaced), place the endnote reference at the end of it, and continue your paragraph on the next line; you must cite to the Gun Fight book AND at least five (5) other reliable sources (no Wiki-pedia, one may be a website, all others must be an article, book or other officially published material)—more material may be used, but my minimums still stand (still no Wiki-pedia though!); create your bibliography with the Chicago style (Winkler, Adam. Gun Fight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2013.); and the paper must be at least nine (9) full pages, then endnotes and a separate page for your bibliography—if you exceed the 9 pages, I will not penalize you, and in fact, I may reward you, so long as you are not droning on, being as verbose as possible just to pad the length of your paper and/or your grade. You are welcome to incorporate political cartoons and other visuals into your paper, but they will not be counted toward your 9-page minimum.

You are expected to complete this research paper and turn it in by Tuesday, November 27, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. electronically at Benjamin.l.dyer@lonestar.edu AND at 4:30/6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 28, 2018 in class as a hard copy. This paper is 20% of your grade, so treat it as such and take it seriously. Mr. Dyer will let you know whether he expects it to be turned in on www.turnitin.com or a similar Lone Star-approved website, but regardless, please do not ignore the electronic and paper copy requirements. Mr. Dyer also reserves the right to assign portions of the reading to be used in conjunction with daily assignments for class.

The Assignment: Compare and contrast the development of the gun rights versus gun control issue in the United States with the development of said issue in Texas.

I should first be able to tell that you have read the Introduction, Preface and all chapters of the book through your analysis of Alan Gura’s development and argument of his case in Heller v. District of Columbia.

Second, you should be able to discuss the development of the gun rights and gun control agendas and laws in the U.S., including, but not limited to, discussion of pre- and post-Civil War legislation, Great Depression-Era legislation, and what happened in the 1960’s and beyond to change the face of the gun fight landscape (based on Mr. Winkler’s discussion in his book).

Third, discuss how Texas has specifically dealt with each of these eras and how each of them shaped Texas’ gun fight today. For example, examine how federal laws have impacted Texas and Texans, analyze the development of gun laws at the state, county, municipal and school/local levels (survey different parts of the state, not just one locale), and evaluate the effectiveness of such laws.

Fourth, as part of your answer to my third requirement, you must focus part of your paper on how this issue has affected a city/area of Texas: (a) Houston/East Texas (last name starts with G thru K); (b) San Antonio/South Texas (last name, L thru R); (c) Dallas/Fort Worth/North Texas (S thru Z); and (d) Austin to Waco/Central Texas (A thru F). You may examine gun control/rights legislation in your area, crime statistics, or anything you deem relevant. One of the areas least examined by students in the past has been statistical data—the existence and/or lack of data, the kinds of data that would be most helpful in fighting and/or solving this problem, who has created/generated the data being used, the veracity and integrity of the data being used, the scientific methodology(ies) being employed to generate the data, and so forth.

Lastly, analyze Texas’ path since Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. As part of this discussion, explore what events, rationales, influences, and/or moral, ethical and/or religious standards have shaped your opinions on this subject, state why you believe that Texas is or is not on the correct path in dealing with this gun fight, evaluate the bases of your and Texas’ positions, discuss what further information you would like to have in order to make a better judgment on what should be done, and evaluate why this issue is so easy, difficult, or otherwise for you. What would you do to try to solve this gun fight in Texas?

Do not answer each of the questions above as “(A),” “(B),” etc., in your research paper. Present the requested information and evaluation in a synthesized form that represents and reflects who you are, whether it be in story-form, methodical rationalization, organized ‘stream-of-consciousness,’ or otherwise. As much as you are exploring this issue, you should also be exploring yourself and how you personally go about evaluating every political issue that affects you personally. I hope you enjoy learning about this difficult issue and learn something about yourself in the process.