I took the oath to “support and defend” our Constitution the first time back in 1983. I’ve taken it several times since then (each time I re-enlisted). Now that I am retired I continue to carry a copy of the Constitution in my pocket everywhere I go. I also carry additional copies and give them to others when any subject comes up about the government’s power to do something. I then ask them to find just where in the Constitution it states that the fed has that power.
I’m not sure how many actually read it. I doubt many do as too often people just believe what they are told and are too lazy to find out the facts for themselves. But I know that my children are aware and are not happy with the current states of affairs. I’m proud to say that my father raised me as a patriot and I’ve past it along to my kids.
I once heard someone say that there is no constitutional right to free health care, free housing, and a monthly check from the government. I'm not sure I believe them.
/JUST kidding
As many of us also do.
But here's the problem. No one can understand the Constitution any more; not even the Supreme Court Justices. Give them a conflict to resolve and they all point in different directions.
There have been so many laws passed in the last 110 years that effectively nullify the Bill of Rights, often multiple times and contradicting each other, and the number keeps growing.
In order for your friends and family to actually get anything useful from the original Constitution they need this...
( PDF files. )
https://www.congress.gov/constitution-annotated
I had problems with that link, because I wanted to download the entire document (~18Mb) and it wouldn't allow me to do so ( Windows 7Pro, Old Pentium 4 ). It could download the many different chapters, parts, but see note below.
If that does not work, you can also download the document from the Government Printing Office site.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CONAN-REV-2014/content-detail.html
This links downloads the entire document, as a single file with internal cross-links which is a big file (on a cable modem it took less than 10 seconds) and the advantage is that notations, citations and precedents are cross-linked within the document itself.
Full disclosure.
I have not tested the files yet because I have not had sufficient time, so some testing is advised. This annotated document presumably has all laws, decisions and reversals that have modified any part of the constitution, so it must be extremely useful, even to non-lawyers with a modicum of education and interest.
One last word of caution : This single file can be viewed in Adobe Reader, but naturally it takes a long time. A copy of full Adobe Acrobat is recommended for the use of this file.
In addition, I'm still not sure if the single file can be forwarded to anyone else, which I have intended to do.
Goodluck!