Second Amendment Scholarship
- About.Com Guide to Civil Liberties
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Wow! The “Guide to Civil Liberties” covers free speech, gun control, asset forfeiture, privacy, sex, and drugs. The only thing missing is rock and roll, and I probably haven’t looked hard enough. Each article includes the primary sources as well as media sources which are available on the web. Great place to go for information and editorials.
- The Commonplace Second Amendment
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“On a topic as incendiary as gun control, it’s obviously tempting for people to reach an interpretation based largely on their policy desires. If we want to be honest interpreters, a broad set of test cases for our interpretive method is a good tool for checking our political biases.”
- The Cure for Multiple Shootings
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“When states enacted death penalty laws, we observed no effect on mass shootings. When states required a waiting period before a gun may be purchased, there was absolutely no effect. Only one type of law correlated with a significant drop in multiple killings: a ‘shall-issue’ gun law.”
- Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws
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The primary rule of medicine should also be the primary rule of politics: “first, do no harm”.
- Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun
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“Right choices are possible, and the ordinary judgement of ordinary (wo)men is sufficient to make them.”
- Gun Control and Economic Discrimination
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“While melting-point legislation prevents many of the nation’s poorer citizens from legally protecting themselves, no convincing factual, public policy, or legal arguments justify this outcome. Preventing those who have a legal right to protect themselves with a handgun from doing so on the basis of socioeconomic considerations simply cannot be the solution… A compelling argument can be made that melting-point laws (1) are arbitrary in determining which handguns they ultimately remove from the market; (2) may have a negative effect on the ability of the police to track down criminals through the use of ballistics tests; (3) do not contribute to crime reduction; and (4) discriminate against the poor who cannot afford to purchase more expensive handguns.”
- Guns and Violent Crime
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Joyce Lee Malcolm and Don B. Kates talk about the history of legal scholarship on the second amendment, and then go into questions. Very interesting talk, from 1999.
- Healy Law Offices
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Sean Healy keeps a very useful collection of second-amendment and firearms-related case law, including the text of over three hundred firearms cases.
- A Liberal Democrat’s Lament
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“My background is atypical for a somewhat high-profile supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. I am black and grew up in Manhattan’s East Harlem. I remain a 1960s Humphrey Democrat concerned with the plight of those most vulnerable in American society—minorities, the poor, the elderly, and single women—groups whose day-to-day realities are often overlooked in our public policy debates.”
- Lott and Weil Debate “More Guns, Less Crime”
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Researcher John Lott debates HCI bureaucrat Douglas Weil for TIME, discussing specifically the information presented in Lott’s book, “Moore Guns, Less Crime”.
- More Guns, Less Crime•
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Despite later issues, Professor Lott has done more to research the perceived link between firearms and crime than anyone since the seminal work of Gary Kleck. Required reading for anyone taking part on either side of the debate on firearms laws.
- Of Arms and the Law
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Lawyer David Hardy’s blog about firearms laws and second amendment issues is a very good place to subscribe.
- People With Strength
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In North Carolina in 1957 Klan attacks resulted in Blacks in Monroe County joining the NRA and receiving firearms training: and Klan attacks stopped.
- Public Health Pot Shots
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How the CDC succumbed to the Gun ‘Epidemic’ (Reason Magazine, April 1997) Can bad science make good policy?
- Russian Firearms Laws and History
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Includes excerpts from Russian firearms laws, and commentary from someone who is there. It hasn’t been updated since 1999, so it is probably out of date with regards to current law. But the history section remains interesting.
- Treating the Second Amendment as Normal Constitutional Law
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“The modern American legal profession has been thoroughly acculturated to Max Weber's conception of the modern state as the monopolist of all legitimate force--a principle in tension with the private keeping of arms for self-defense.”
- U.S. Brief in U.S. v. Miller
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The federal brief in the infamous “Miller” case, wherein the Supreme Court affirmed the second amendment as an individual right.
- The Value of Civilian Arms
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From the American Journal of Criminal Law. An overview of the value of civilian firearms ownership in reducing crime. Full title: “The Value of Civilian Arms Possession As Deterrent To Crime Or Defense Against Crime”, by Don B. Kates, Jr.
- What the Supreme Court has said about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
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While the Supreme Court hasn’t directly taken on the second amendment often, they have mentioned and discussed it in many cases throughout the Court’s history.
- Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? (PDF)
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International evidence and comparisons have long been offered as proof that more guns mean more deaths and that fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths. Unfortunately, such discussions are all too often been afflicted by misconceptions and factual error and focus on comparisons that are unrepresentative. (Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser)
