Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Assault Weapons Ban Expires, 09/13/04
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec04/assaultban_9-13.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Is it legal to own a gun?

2. What are some of the laws that restrict gun ownership?

3. What is the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and why is it such a hotly contested issue?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What law expires September 13, 2004?

A federal government ban on the sale of certain military-style semiautomatic weapons, including Uzis and AK-47s, expires this week.

2. What did supporters of the ban hope Congress and President Bush would do?

Supporters of the ban, including a Colorado father whose son was shot to death at Columbine High School, had hoped the House of Representatives, the Senate and President Bush would extend the ban. But those supporters conceded defeat as the clock ticked down without a vote.

According to a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania, what percentage of the American public wants the band extended?

Polls showed a majority of Americans -- 68 percent, according to a recent study by the University of Pennsylvania -- backed extending the ban.

3. How did manufacturers skirt the ban?

Many manufacturers were able to skirt the list of 19 banned weapons by designing and selling knockoffs.

4. How do police chiefs feel about the ban?

Several police chiefs, including those from Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle, urged lawmakers to renew the ban.

They talked about how their officers are already up against bad guys with better guns. The ban, they argued, would only make the situation worse.

"We're sick and tired of picking up young bodies off our streets," said Richard Pennington, Atlanta's police chief.

"They (the banned weapons) are a threat to the safety of our dedicated police officers and the public," said Washington, D.C., police Chief Charles Ramsey.

5. List 3 reasons opponents of the ban think it should not be renewed.

Most automatic weapons, including most machine guns, that have been illegal since 1934 will remain that way.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is among those who question the ban's success and said legislation outlawing guns has the potential to reach "all kinds of hunting rifles."

Other opponents of the ban criticized the confusing nature of what was specifically outlawed. Richard Batory, a firearms instructor and NRA member from Tucson, Ariz., said the ban is "basically about cosmetics of certain firearms. It doesn't affect function or the way firearms are being used."

Opponents also point out that banned weapons manufactured and sold before 1994 were grandfathered in, meaning they were still legal to buy and sell.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Do you think the assault weapon ban should be renewed?

2. The Second Amendment to the Constitution reads: "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." What does that mean to you?

3. Write an essay explaining your interpretation of the Second Amendment and send it to extra@newshour.org

Write a 500-800 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.