Edwin Manning
Ms. Evans
AP Lang & Comp
8 February 2015
Directions: The following prompt is based on the accompanying eight sources.
This question requires you to synthesize a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay. When you synthesize sources you refer to them to develop your position and cite them accurately. Your argument should be central; the sources should support this argument. Avoid merely summarizing sources.
Remember to attribute both direct and indirect references.
Introduction
Crimes involving the use of firearms are more prevalent than ever. For the past 30 years there have been more shootings then there ever have been in the country at any other time. Public opinion has been split down the middle, and debate over whether a strict or loose interpretation of the 2nd amendment regarding the availability of firearms to the public has only made the problem more difficult. Some Americans believe that firearms should be banned completely, and other believe that there only should be minor changes to gun laws that make certain firearms and accessories unavailable to the public.
Assignment
Read the sources that follow (including the introductory information) carefully. Then choose an issue related to the tension. You might choose an issue such as whether or not guns should be made legal, or whether or not there should be. You do not have to choose an issue that you have experienced personally. Then, write an essay in which you use this issue to argue the extent to which schools should support individuality or conformity. Synthesize at least three of the sources for support.
You may refer to the sources by their titles (Source A, Source B, etc.) or by the descriptions in the parentheses.
Source A (Bloomberg)
Source B (FEDERAL FIREARMS LAWS)
Source C (The Progressive Cynic)
Source D (Lott)
Source E (OnTheIssues)
Source F (The Progressive Cynic)
Source G (Watkins)
Source H (Wogan)
2009 AP® ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS (Form B)
Source A
"Gun Control and the Constitution: Should WE Amend the Second Amendment?" Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, n.d. Web. 06. Feb. 2015 For a Couple of centuries, you might be surprised to learn, the Supreme Court didn’t exactly say what the Second Amendment means. As far as Stevens can tell, “federal judges uniformly understood that the right protected by the text was limited in two ways: first, it applied only to keeping and bearing arms for military purposes, and second, while it limited the power of the federal government, it did not impose any limit whatsoever on the power of states or local governments to regulate the ownership or use of firearms.” He recalls a colorful remark on the topic by the late Warren Burger, who served as chief justice from 1969 to 1986. Responding to the NRA’s lobbying campaign opposing gun control laws in the name of Second Amendment rights, Burger, a lifelong conservative, remarked during a television interview in 1991 that the amendment “has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud—I repeat, fraud—on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.”
