What is the intended scope of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States? Is it an example of an “individual rights theory” or a “collective rights theory”?

Everytime that a massacre happens in the United States , the debate about gun control comes out to light again.

The right of carrying a weapon for self defense is often associated with the United States of America where, with few limitations by law, is fully recognized. But in reality its origins are older and the original interpretation  is different from what it is today.

The second ammendment says "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed". 

It is from this ammendment that the two theories, individual and colective rights, are going to debate each other because they understand in a different way what the ammendment say. 

The ones that support the individual rights theory state that the constitution restricts legislative bodies from prohibiting firearm possession. On the other hand, the ones who support the colective rights theory say that the second ammendment was created to restrict the Congress from legislating against the state's right to self-defense. 

The second ammendment was written a long time ago, and that was a time when the government was still young and it was just established because it was right after the independence. It was supposed to defend the individual from any abuse. Freedom was really important back then and that's why people were allowed to posses weapons. 

Nowadays things have changed, but the ammendmenst is still there without any restoration, instead of the citizens taking care of the government, they have to defend themselves from another citizens, and that's why arms are legal. But we have to take into account the massacres in which innocent people have lost their lives to a maniac who is free to carry a gun. 

I think that the solution is to avoid the sale of weapons to individuals, that means that i'm in favor of the colective rights theory. That way people like us won't have the right to buy weapons not even the ones that are used in the army. 

    

What were the effects of American Independence on the establishment of a government in the United States of America?

The American Revolution (1775-1783) was a conflict between the American colonists and the government of England. In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was written and was signed by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklyn and others; and it showed that they were determined to become a free nation. France entered the war in favor of the colonists in 1778. With their help, the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia in 1779 and the Americans practically had won their independence, even though fighting would not formally end until 1783 with the Treaty of Paris. 

Declaration of Independence

In 1787, four years after the Revolution, the old Federal Constitution was changed and it was replaced by a new constitution that was held in Philadelphia. After that it was established that the new American state was a republic and not a monarchy. Instead of being a unitary state, it was a federation. It was a democracy rather than a dictatorship. But that democracy was not perfect because voting was restricted to adult males who owned property, women had no political rights, and slaves had no rights at all.

The framers of the new constitution gave the  federal government greater powers such as taxation and regulation commerce. The government was divided into three branches. It had a legislative body which was the Congress. The executive branch with the President at its head. And the judicial branch which was the Supreme Court. The three branches were expected to check and balance one another. 

Constitutional convention of 1787

As it was said in class, "the American example of democratic government was a landmark in world history as it helped influence other societies living under monarchic rule to start a revolution." 

What were the effects of colonialism and mercantilism in America?

The first thing to know before answering the question is what colonialism and mercantilism mean. 

Colonialism can be defined as the submission by a stronger country or land of a weaker one. The stronger exploits the weaker one's resources for its benefit. Mercantilism is an economic system given after the feudalism which works to increase a nation's wealth by government regulation of all of the nation's commercial interests. Mercantilism is the idea that colonies existed for the benefit of the Mother Country. 

Now that we know what the two concepts mean, we're going to go back in history and talk about how the British came to America and established their colonies and how colonialism and mercantilism are related to each other and the most important thing, how they affected America in different ways. 

The British arrived to America in the late 16th century and they began to establish their first colonial settlement in Jamestown and later in 1620 they founded Plymouth in Massachussetts. The English settled in Northamerica because they thought that it would be a good way to make money and also would improve their quality of life so they could have freedom in politics and religion. 

When the colonies were established, Britain used the mercantilism system, and as i said at the begining, they exploited America's resources for the economical benefit of the Motherland. The most important thing for Britain to do was keep its money and not trade with other countries to get necessary items. The colonists role was to provide many of these items to the British.

As the colonies grew and became more flourishing, the English realized that the colonies could provide increased trade, if competition could be eliminated. Americans had established profitable trade with other countries, specially the Dutch. In order to increase their wealth, Britain implemented regulatory policies, most of them with taxes and laws of trade called Navigation Acts which purpose was basically to ensure that they were the only commercial partner of America.

The colonists started to avoid the taxes and also they started smuggling making this activity profitable in America. This was not an easy thing to control by the British government.

Knowing all of this, we can say now that the main effects of mercantilism and colonialism in America had to do with economical, political, cultural and religious aspects. There were obviously positive and negative consequences for example the people had the freedom to practice the religion they wanted but on the other hand they were exploited by the british government and had to pay taxes. But that submission led the colonialists to think about a way to get rid of that opression and they started to think about the benefit of America and not the benefit of England and their government.