The Second Amendment

• Guarantees the right to bear (carry) arms (weapons). Congress cannot prevent people from owning guns for their own protection. However, states and local governments can make laws about who may own them and how they are carried.

The Third Amendment

• The government cannot force citizens to keep soldiers in their homes. In Colonial times, citizens were forced to allow British soldiers into their homes.

The Fourth Amendment

• Limits searches and seizures. This amendment says that before police officers can enter your home, they must have a warrant, or legal paper from a judge, giving permission for a search or arrest.

The Fifth Amendment

Grants the following rights: • A person cannot be brought to trial for a serious crime until a grand jury has studied the charges. • If you have been tried for a crime, you cannot be tried again for the same crime. • A person accused of a crime cannot be forced to say anything against himself. • The government cannot take away your life or property, or put you in prison, without “due process of law.” • If the government has a good reason to take away your property for public use, it must pay you a fair price for that property.

In 2005, Betty Debnam, creator of The Mini Page, worked closely with the National Archives in Washington, D.C., to create a nine-part series of issues about our U.S. Constitution. This is the eighth issue in the series, which will continue once a month until Election Day 2020.