Firearms Law and the Second Amendment

Contents

Preface

xxiii

Acknowledgments

xxix

PART ONE

THE ORIGINS OF THE RIGHT TO ARMS

1

1

A Brief Introduction to Firearms and Their Regulation

3

A. The Parts of a Firearm and Ammunition

3

B. Firearm Features

5

1. Firing Mechanism

5

2. Ammunition Feeding

5

3. Safety Devices

6

4. Firearm User Safety

6

C. The Major Types of Firearms

7

1. Handguns

8

a. Semi-Automatic Pistols

8

b. Revolvers

9

c. Legitimate Uses of Handguns

10

d. Criminal Uses of Handguns

10

2. Rifles

10

a. Bolt-Action

11

b. Semi-Automatic

11

c. Lever-Action

13

d. Single-Shot

13

e. Characteristics of Rifles

13

f. Legitimate Uses of Rifles

14

g. Crime with Rifles

14

3. Shotguns

14

a. Shotgun Shells

15

b. Types of Shotguns

15

xi

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c. Legitimate Uses of Shotguns d. Crime with Shotguns D. Modern Gun-Control Laws 1. Purchasing a Gun from a Commercial Dealer 2. Purchasing a Gun from Private Sellers 3. Purchases in Various Locations 4. Gun Registration 5. Keeping a Gun at Home 6. Target Shooting 7. Hunting with a Gun 8. Carrying a Gun for Protection a. At Home or in Your Place of Business b. In Your Automobile c. In Public Places 9. Local Laws 10. Using a Gun for Self-Defense E. Gun Control Controversies Today Appendix: The Right to Arms in State Constitutions

2

Antecedents of the Second Amendment

A. The Early Far East 1. Confucianism The Analects of Confucius Mencius 2. Taoism a. Tao Te Ching b. Wen-Tzu c. The Master of the Hidden Storehouse d. Huainanzi

B. Ancient Greece and Rome 1. Greece a. Greek Law b. Plato vs. Aristotle 2. Rome a. Corpus Juris b. Corpus Juris Provisions on Self-Defense

C. Judeo-Christian Thought 1. Jewish Thought 2. Early Christian Thought a. The Sermon on the Mount b. The Final Instructions to the Apostles c. The Arrest of Jesus

Contents

16 16 17 17 17 18 18 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 21 22 22 26

37

37 37 38 38 41 41 42 43 43 46 46 46 48 52 57 58 61 61 66 66 66 67

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d. Paul's Letter to the Romans e. Other Early Christian Writings 3. Medieval Christian Thought a. John of Salisbury's Policraticus b. Thomas Aquinas D. Second-Millennium Europe 1. Italian Influence

Machiavelli, Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius

Beccaria, An Essay on Crimes and Punishments 2. England

a. Magna Charta b. English Statutes

Statute of Assize of Arms c. Castle Doctrine Cases d. Hue and Cry, the Militia, the Glorious Revolution,

and the Declaration of Right e. Blackstone f. John Locke

Locke, Second Treatise of Government g. Novanglus

Adams, Novanglus

3

The Colonies and the Revolution

A. Firearms Control in the Colonies 1. Early Arms Mandates a. Colonial Statutes Mandating Arms Possession b. Colonial Statutes Mandating Arms-Carrying c. Statutory Requirements for Arming Free Servants and Children 2. Early Firearms Regulation and Prohibition a. Safety Regulations b. Limits on Gun Sales to Indians c. Gun Restrictions on Blacks d. Sporadic Disarmament of Dissidents

B. Firearms, Self-Defense, and Militias in Pre-Revolutionary America 1. The Boston Massacre Trial 2. A Colonial View of the English Right to Arms E.A., Boston Gazette, Feb. 27, 1769 3. Religion, Arms, and Resistance Mayhew, A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers Howard, A Sermon Preached to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in Boston

xiii

67 68 69 70 71 73 73

74 76 76 77 80 80 86

88 91 96 96 97 98

101

101 101 101 106

108 110 110 111 114 115

117 117 119 119 120

123

126

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Contents

C. The British Crackdown

135

1. The Coercive (Intolerable) Acts and the Powder Alarm

135

2. Disarmament Orders from London

138

3. The Import Ban

139

4. Calls for Defiance: Patrick Henry and the South

141

Henry, The War Inevitable, Speech at the Second

Revolutionary Convention of Virginia

142

5. Defiance in Practice and the Independent Militias

145

D. Arms and the American Revolution

147

1. Gun Confiscation at Lexington and Concord

147

2. Gun Confiscation in Boston

149

3. Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

152

4. Falmouth Destroyed

155

5. The Declaration of Independence

157

6. Thomas Paine on Self-Defense, Resistance, and Militias

161

7. Gun Confiscation and Smuggling Reprised

162

8. The Militia, the Continental Army, and American

Marksmanship

164

E. The Articles of Confederation

167

F. The Right to Arms, Standing Armies, and Militias in the

Early State Constitutions and Statutes

169

1. South Carolina

169

2. Virginia

169

3. New Jersey

170

4. Pennsylvania

171

5. Delaware

172

6. Maryland

172

7. North Carolina

173

8. Georgia

173

9. New York

174

10. Vermont

174

11. Massachusetts

175

12. New Hampshire

177

13. Connecticut

178

14. Rhode Island

179

4

The New Constitution

185

A. Standing Armies, Militias, and Individual Rights -- The

Constitutional Convention of 1787

186

B. State Ratification Conventions

190

1. Pennsylvania

190

2. Massachusetts

192

3. Maryland

193

4. New Hampshire

194

5. Virginia

195

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xv

Virginia Ratification Message

201

Resolution of Virginia's Proposed Amendments

202

6. New York

204

7. North Carolina

206

Resolution of North Carolina's Proposed Amendments 206

8. Rhode Island

208

Rhode Island Ratification Message

208

C. Commentary During the Ratification Period

209

1. The Federalist Papers

209

The Federalist No. 29 (Alexander Hamilton)

209

The Federalist No. 46 (James Madison)

210

2. Tench Coxe

211

3. Other Federalists

213

D. The Second Amendment

214

1. The Second Amendment's Path Through Congress

215

2. Commentary on the Second Amendment

218

E. Post-Ratification

225

1. The Militia Acts

225

First Militia Act of 1792

225

Second Militia Act of 1792

226

2. St. George Tucker

231

a. Tucker's Blackstone

231

b. Tucker's Early Lecture Notes

233

F. Federal and State Military Forces of Today

235

1. The United States Armed Forces

235

2. The National Guard

236

3. State Defense Forces

239

4. The Unorganized Militia

239

5

The Right to Arms, Militias, and Slavery in the Early

Republic and Antebellum Periods

243

A. Militias as a Military and Political Force in the

Post-Revolutionary Period

243

1. The Crisis of 1798-99

243

The Federalist Program

243

2. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

244

3. Fries's Rebellion

246

Churchill, Popular Nullification, Fries's Rebellion,

and the Waning of Radical Republicanism,

1798-1801

248

4. The War of 1812

249

B. Antebellum Case Law on the Right to Arms Under the State

and Federal Constitutions

251

1. A Right to Carry Weapons Openly for Self-Defense

253

Nunn v. State

253

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