The Right To Bear Arms

by WINTERS, ROBERT

• ISBN13: 9780737719338
• ISBN10: 0737719338
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-11-30
• Publisher: Greenhaven Pr

Summary

The Bill of Rights series highlights the living and breathing document. Each anthology focuses on one civil right guaranteed by the amendments and traces its evolution throughout American history to the present. Primary documents -- including landmark Supreme Court rulings -- reveal the ongoing effort to define the exact meaning of the text and apply its abstract concepts to real-world cases. Secondary sources, including magazine articles and book excerpts, add an additional layer of analysis and commentary. Taken together, the volumes of The Bill of Rights series illuminate the defining ideals of American democracy.

Table of Contents

Foreword	8	(3)
Introduction	11	(6)
Chapter 1: The Founders' Intent in Creating the Second Amendment
1. The Founders Intended to Protect Individual Gun Rights
BY JOYCE LEE MALCOLM	17	(9)
The "standard model" theory holds that gun rights are derived from an old Anglo-American tradition that first required citizens to be armed against invasion. This requirement developed into a right, which was preserved by the Second Amendment.
2. The Founders Did Not Intend to Protect Individual Gun Rights
BY GARRY WILLS	26	(9)
Contrary to the standard model, the Second Amendment should be seen only as a guarantee of states' rights to organize and maintain militias made up of their own citizens.
3. The Founders Intended Most Citizens to Be Armed
BY SANFORD LEVINSON	35	(7)
In the colonial era militias were simply the armed citizenry, an alternative to standing armies and a bulwark of liberty against tyranny. The founders thus envisioned widespread gun ownership.
4. The Founders Intended to Preserve State Militias
BY PAUL FINKELMAN	42	(10)
The founders meant the Second Amendment to preserve the power relationships first set out in the Constitution, including the right of the states to maintain militias. They did not intend to preserve individual gun rights or to allow insurrection against the government itself.
Chapter 2: The Supreme Court Interprets the Second Amendment
1. The Court Rules That the Second Amendment Applies Only to Congress
BY MORRISON REMICK WAITE	52	(8)
In U.S. v. Cruikshank (1875) the Court sharply limited the scope of the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, to the national government.
2. The Second Amendment Does Not Forbid States from Regulating Arms
BY WILLIAM WOODS	60	(10)
In Presser v. Illinois (1886) the Court ruled that state governments could regulate guns and disarm paramilitary organizations. At the same time, it affirmed that states could not go so far as to prevent all gun ownership and thus deprive themselves, and the nation, of a militia.
3. The Court Upholds a Federal Gun Control Law
BY JAMES MCREYNOLDS	70	(6)
In U.S. v. Miller (1939) the Court ruled that the federal government could ban firearms that have no clear relationship to militia service. However, states must allow some degree of gun ownership for potential militia members.
4. Banning Convicted Felons from Owning Guns Is Constitutional
BY HARRY BLACKMUN	76	(7)
In Lewis v. United States (1980) the Court upheld the 1968 Gun Control Act's ban on gun ownership for felons. The Court held that restrictions on gun ownership do not infringe on any constitutionally protected right.
5. The Supreme Court's Decisions Point Away from Individual Gun Rights
BY MICHAEL C. DORF	83	(6)
The Supreme Court's decisions so far have set a precedent against an individual right to gun ownership.
Chapter 3: Perspectives on Gun Rights and Gun Control
1. Second Amendment Rights Are Essential for Liberty
BY CHARLTON HESTON	89	(7)
The fight to defend gun rights is part of a larger fight to preserve all of Americans' constitutional liberties from both foreign and domestic threats.
2. Second Amendment Rights Should Be Limited
BY DAVID L. GOLDBERG	96	(4)
Limiting gun rights in order to ensure public safety is consistent with the intent of the Second Amendment.
3. Handguns Should Be Eliminated from Society
BY JOSH SUGARMANN	100	(5)
Halfway measures, such as background checks and trigger locks, are not enough. It is time to ban handguns altogether.
4. Banning Handguns Is Not a Practical Option
BY JAMES B. JACOBS	105
Outlawing handgun ownership would simply create a large black market and lead to widespread corruption. Constitutional challenges and lax enforcement would also undermine any such effort and ultimately make a ban ineffective.
Appendix
The Origins of the American Bill of Rights	112	(3)
Supreme Court Cases Involving the Right to Bear Arms	115	(3)
For Further Research	118	(3)
Index	121