The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear “Arms”–not solely “firearms.” While firearms have always been the paradigmatic Second Amendment arm, there are many other types of arms which are protected by the Second Amendment. By far the most common of the other arms are knives. Now at the printer is the first […]
Archive | Militia
Origins of the English Militia
David Hume’s’s The History of England (1778) tells the story of the Danish conquest of England. (vol. 1, chapter 2 “The Anglo-Saxons”). After a series of wars, the Danes drove King Alfred off the throne, forcing him to flee incognito, disguised as a peasant. Alfred then retired into the center of a bog, formed by the […]
Ancient Hebrew Militia Law
That’s the title of a short article by me, just published in the Denver University Law Review Online. The militia politics of ancient Israel are covered in an article I wrote several years ago for Liberty magazine: ” To Your Tents, O Israel!” Both articles discuss the influence of the Israel’s history on the American Founders.
“A Good Musket” and Bearing Arms
By Eugene Kontorovich on July 8, 2013 11:37 am in Constitutional Amendments, Constitutional Theory, Guns, Militia, Originalism, Right to carry
I’ve been discussing whether the right to bear arms is infringed by laws limiting people to bearing only one “arm”, as a proposal by Illinois Gov. Quinn seeks to do. Perhaps the best evidence for a singular reading of “arms” is the Second Militia Act of 1792, section 1, which provides, in part, that a […]
Is the Right to Bear Arms Plural?
By Eugene Kontorovich on July 8, 2013 10:04 am in Constitutional Amendments, Constitutional Law, Guns, Militia, Originalism, Right to carry, Seventh Circuit, Uncategorized
Tomorrow, Illinois’ concealed carry laws will become ineffective, having been held unconstitutional by the Seventh Circuit several months ago. The Court kept the unconstitutional law on life support for a few months to give the legislature time to craft a replacement measure. Springfield responded, but now that bill has been vetoed by Governor Quinn. If […]
The Dick Act and Gun Control
The first federal statutes governing the Militia of the United States were enacted in 1792. There were some revisions in 1795. During the Civil War, an amendment removed the language that had restricted federal militia membership to free whites. The old militia statutes were repealed and replaced by the Militia Act of 1903, 32 Stat. […]
Louisiana amendment to strengthen right to arms, on November ballot
By David Kopel on October 3, 2012 7:04 pm in Constitutional Amendments, Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Elections, Guns, Militia, Popular Constitutionalism, Right to carry, State Constitutional Law
In state elections, the most important vote this November will be in Louisiana. A referendum there would significantly strengthen protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the state, and would set a very significant national precedent. Before the Civil War, the Louisiana Constitution did not mention a right to arms. The Louisiana […]
Podcast on the creation of the Second Amendment
By David Kopel on June 8, 2012 5:55 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Guns, Militia, Originalism
For my co-authored textbook Firearms Law and the Second Amendment, I’ve been doing a series of podcasts on each chapter. Now available is the podcast for Chapter 4, which covers the Philadelphia Convention, the ratification debates, the creation of Bill of Rights, and St. George Tucker’s contemporaneous exposition of the original meaning of the Second […]
D-Day thoughts
In a column from 2000, I examined what military historians suggest might have happened if the D-Day landings had been repulsed. Or what if they had taken place in 1943 instead of 1944? The short answers are that if D-Day had failed, Stalin would have ended up occupying almost all of German, which would have […]
New textbook: Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights and Policy
By David Kopel on May 15, 2012 4:32 pm in Casebooks, Guns, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Militia, Non-Firearms Arms, Registration, Right to carry
The first law school textbook on the Second Amendment is now available from Aspen Publishers. The co-author are Nick Johnson (Fordham), Michael O’Shea (Oklahoma City), George Mocsary (Connecticut), and me. Here’s the publisher’s page for the textbook, from which professors can request a free review copy. The book is also available for civilian purchase from […]
How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution
By David Kopel on May 14, 2012 2:17 pm in Constitutional History, Guns, History, Militia, Religion, Religious Freedom
I posted a draft of this article a few months ago, and I thank VC readers for some helpful comments in improving it. The final version has been published by the Charleston Law Review, and is available on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: This Article chronologically reviews the British gun control which precipitated the American Revolution: the […]
Laws about gun ownership in early America
By David Kopel on December 9, 2011 2:23 am in Constitutional History, Election Law, Guns, History, Militia, Political Ignorance, Religion and the Law, Right to carry
Regarding Eugene Volokh’s post below about an NYU L. Rev. article, “The People” of the Second Amendment: Citizenship and the Right To Bear Arms. I just scanned the article, and there appears to be only a single footnote which directly cites any state statutes from before 1800. Note 125, accurately cites standard statutory compilations from […]
How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution
That’s the title of my new law review article, currently in the editing process at the Charleston Law Review. A draft is available at SSRN, and comments are welcome. The final part of the article suggests how the history might inform our modern understanding of Second Amendment rights.
The rise and fall of the Second Amendment “collective right”
By David Kopel on September 5, 2011 3:38 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Guns, History, Militia, Supreme Court
My recent article for America’s 1st Freedom traces the rise and fall of the theory that the Second Amendment is not an individual right, but instead is a “collective right,” which, like “collective property” in a communist country, supposedly belongs to everyone collectively, but in fact belongs to no-one. The theory was created by a […]
The Bernardine Dohrn of the early 20th century: The terrorist professor at U of Texas law school
By David Kopel on May 24, 2010 3:56 pm in Academia, Congress, Constitutional History, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Criminal Law, Economic LIberties, Education, Guns, History, Law Schools, Legal Professor, Militia, Rehabilitating Lochner
My DU colleague Thomas Russell, who used to teach at the University of Texas Law school, has a written a paper, available on SSRN, which urges the University of Texas Law School to rename Simkins Hall, a law and graduate male student dormitory named for William Stewart Simkins. Simkins taught equity, contracts, procedure, and related topics at UT for […]