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The History of Gun Law and the Second Amendment in the United States

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Why We Are Losing the War on Gun Violence in the United States

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Abstract

The current heated debate over the right to possess and carry firearms is nuanced and complex, and the history dates back to the Constitution of the United States. Over time, the Second Amendment has become a rallying cry for gun rights activists and a flashpoint for their opponents. Understanding the historical interpretation of the law can inform future legislation and policy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Madison also believed, however, that the English Bill of Rights was merely an act of Parliament and could thus be easily overturned by a later Parliament ([1], p. 1037).

  2. 2.

    The wealthy, however, could often buy their way out of service ([9], p. 9).

  3. 3.

    Not everyone was allowed to join the militia or to possess arms. This included selective (and often forceful) disarmament of several groups, including “slaves, free blacks, and people of mixed race out of fear that these groups would use guns to revolt against slave maters.” In some places, bans extended to Catholics, Loyalists, Native people, and sometimes “anyone deemed untrustworthy” ([2], pp. 115–116; [9], pp. 41–42; [10], p. 32).

  4. 4.

    See, e.g., State v. Newsom, 27 N.C. (5 Ired.) 250 (1844).

  5. 5.

    See United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875) and Presser v. Illinois, 116 US 252 (1886). “As Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Leonard Levy remarked, ‘Cruikshank paralyzed the federal government’s attempt to protect black citizens by punishing violators of their Civil Rights and, in effect, shaped the Constitution to the advantage of the Ku Klux Klan’” ([2], p. 145).

  6. 6.

    Full text available at https://archive.org/stream/NationalFirearmsActOf1934/National_Firearms_Act_of_1934_djvu.txt

  7. 7.

    Mr. Miller was found shot to death a few months after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction ([2], p. 216; [15], pp. 66–67).

  8. 8.

    Full text available at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-82/pdf/STATUTE-82-Pg1213-2.pdf

  9. 9.

    Full text available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/senate-bill/49

  10. 10.

    Full text available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/1025/text/rh

  11. 11.

    Private sales between two private parties do not have to do a NICS check.

  12. 12.

    In reality, the NICS checks prevented more than 1.5 million gun sales in its first decade ([2], p. 72).

  13. 13.

    See Worman v. Healey, 922 F.3d 26 (1st Cir. 2019).

  14. 14.

    See Kachalsky v. County of Westchester, 701 F.3d 81 (2nd Cir. 2012).

  15. 15.

    See Teixeira v. County of Alameda, 873 F.3d 670 (9th Cir. 2017).

  16. 16.

    See Peruta v. County of San Diego, 824 F.3d 919 (9th Cir. 2016).

  17. 17.

    Original budget inclusion language available at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-104publ208/pdf/PLAW-104publ208.pdf

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard University Extension School, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Elisabeth J. Ryan

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  1. Elisabeth J. Ryan
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Correspondence to Elisabeth J. Ryan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Marie Crandall

  2. Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA

    Stephanie Bonne

  3. NRI, Falls Church, VA, USA

    Jennifer Bronson

  4. School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA

    Woodie Kessel

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Ryan, E.J. (2021). The History of Gun Law and the Second Amendment in the United States. In: Crandall, M., Bonne, S., Bronson, J., Kessel, W. (eds) Why We Are Losing the War on Gun Violence in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55513-9_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55513-9_11

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