California Forces Publisher to ‘Alter the Meaning’ of Second Amendment in School Textbook, NRA Says

California pushed for a textbook annotation about the Second Amendment that gun rights advocates say is misleading.

In a recent analysis of eight textbooks from California and Texas, The New York Times identified several differences that reflect the ideological divide between red and blue America.

The textbooks examined by The Times were all published after 2016 and widely adopted for students in grades 8-11.

One difference between the California and Texas editions of a textbook caught the eye of a the National Rifle Association.

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According to The Times, publisher McGraw-Hill created “additional wording on the Second Amendment and gun control for the California textbook.”

School children in California will see the following annotation in a social studies textbook’s discussion on the Bill of Rights:

Right to Bear Arms This amendment is often debated. Originally it was intended to prevent the national government from repeating the actions of the British, who tried to take weapons away from the colonial militia, or armed forces of the citizens. This amendment seems to support the right of citizens to own firearms, but the Supreme Court has ruled it does not prevent Congress from regulating the interstate sale of weapons.

Texas’ version of the same textbook does not contain the passage.

The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action blasted California for the move.

In a Jan. 19 blog post, the guns rights lobbying group said the textbook annotation “falsely portrays the Second Amendment as a ‘debated’ provision that has changed meaning over time and that only “seems” to protect an individual right.

“Any ‘debate’ about the Second Amendment’s protection of an individual right have been authoritatively settled by the U.S. Supreme Court: The Second Amendment protects ‘the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,’ independent of service in an organized militia. That fact was unambiguously articulated in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008,” the NRA-ILA wrote in the post.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the NRA accused California of “requiring a textbook publisher to alter the meaning of the Second Amendment to fit their EXTREMIST ANTI-GUN AGENDA!”

The California panel that reviewed the textbook and submitted requests to McGraw-Hill was made up of educators chosen by the State Board of Education, The Times reported.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, appointed the members of the California State Board of Education.

California is widely considered to have some of the tightest firearms restrictions in the country.

The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence ranked California first among all 50 states for the strength of its gun laws.

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Meanwhile, the state scored an “A” rating on the Giffords Law Center’s Annual Gun Law Scorecard.

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