Feedback to SSRN (Beta)
What type of feedback would you like to send?
Abstract: There are 59 nations for which data about per capita gun ownership are available. This Article examines the relationship between gun density and several measures of freedom and prosperity: the Freedom House ratings of political rights and civil liberty, the Transparency International Perceived Corruption Index, the World Bank Purchasing Power Parity ratings, and the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. The data suggest that the relationships between gun ownership rates and these other measures are complex. The data show that (although exceptions can be found) the nations with the highest rates of gun ownership tend to have greater political and civil freedom, greater economic freedom and prosperity, and much less corruption than other nations. The relationship only exists for high-ownership countries. Countries with medium rates of gun density generally scored no better or worse than countries with the lowest levels of per capita gun ownership.
per capita gun ownership, political freedom, civil liberty, economic freedom, corruption, prosperity
Abstract: Writing in the Virginia Law Review, a distinguished federal judge maintains that true conservatives are required to substitute principles of judicial restraint for an inquiry into the original meaning of the Constitution. Accordingly, argues J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, the Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision in District of Columbia v. Heller is an activist decision just like Roe v. Wade: "[B]oth cases found judicially enforceable substantive rights only ambiguously rooted in the Constitution's text." In this response, we challenge his critique.
Part I shows that Judge Wilkinson's analogy between Roe and Heller is untenable. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is in the Constitution, and the right to abortion is not. Contrary to Judge Wilkinson, the genuine conservative critique of Roe is based on the Constitution, not on judicial "values." Judge Wilkinson, moreover, does not show that Heller's interpretation of the Second Amendment is refuted, or even called into serious question, by Justice Stevens' dissenting opinion.
Part II shows that Judge Wilkinson himself does not adhere to the "neutral principle" that he claims to derive from "judicial values." Under the principle of judicial restraint that he articulates, many now-reviled statutes, including the Jim Crow laws of the twentieth century, should have been upheld by the courts. Judge Wilkinson does not accept the consequences of his own supposedly neutral principle, preferring instead to endorse or condemn Supreme Court decisions solely on the basis of his policy preferences. That is not judicial restraint. It is judicial lawlessness.
Abstract: Most states issue permits to carry a concealed handgun for lawful protection to an applicant who is over 21 years of age, and who passes a fingerprint-based background check and a safety class. These permits allow the person to carry a concealed defensive handgun almost everywhere in the state. Should professors, school teachers, or adult college and graduate students who have such permits be allowed to carry firearms on campus?
In the last two years, many state legislatures have debated the topic. School boards, regents, and administrators are likewise faced with decisions about whether to change campus firearms policies.
This Paper is the first to provide a thorough analysis of the empirical evidence and policy arguments regarding licensed campus carry. Whether a reader agrees or disagrees with the Paper's policy recommendations, the Paper can lay the foundation for a better-informed debate, and a more realistic analysis of the issue.
concealed handgun licensing, school zones, carry permits
Abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller constitutionalized the right of self-defense, and described self-defense as a natural, inherent right. Analysis of natural law in Heller shows why Justice Stevens' dissent is clearly incorrect, and illuminates a crucial weakness in Justice Breyer's dissent. The constitutional recognition of the natural law right of self-defense has important implications for American law, and for foreign and international law.
District of Columbia v. Heller, Second Amendment, self-defense, natural law, inherent right
Abstract: This Article examines the strengths and weaknesses of modern pacifist religious philosophy. The Article suggests that some intellectual arguments for pacifism are logically solid (once certain premises are granted), while others have serious flaws. The article discusses five influential philosophical advocates of non-violence Thomas Merton, Stanley Hauerwas, Leo Tolstoy, Tony Campolo, and John Howard Yoder. In addition, the Article examines three real-world cases where the practice of non-violence was put into action: the Danish rescue of the Jews during WW II, the American Civil Rights movement in the South in the 1960s, and the invasion of the Chatham Islands - the home of the pacifist Moriori tribes.
Pacifism, Christianity, Nazi, Denmark, Hauerwas, Yoder, Tolstoy, Campolo
Abstract: Much recent scholarship on early Christianity has emphasized the diversity of early Christian thought. This Paper presents evidence of diversity on early Christian belief and practice on the issue of pacifism. Notably, the diversity is found within orthodox Christianity itself. The claims of some modern writers that pre-Constantian orthodox Christians were virtually unanimously pacifist are not correct. In fact, some but not all of the early Patristic writers were pacifists. A significant number of Christians, including saints, served in the Roman army. The Paper discusses the following writers: Justin Martyr, Marcion, Irenaeus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Julius Africanus, Origen, Cyprian, Arnobius, and Lactantius, and also examines other sources of information about the early church.
Pacifism, Christianity, Church Fathers, Roman Army
Abstract: Does a woman have a human right to resist rape or murder? Do people have a human right to resist tyranny? The United Nations Human Rights Council has said no - that international law recognizes no human right of self-defense. To the contrary, the Human Rights Council declares that very severe gun control - more restrictive than even the laws of New York City - is a human right. Surveying international law from its earliest days to the present, this Article demonstrates that self-defense is a widely-recognized human right which no government and no international body have the authority to abrogate. The issue is especially important today, as many international advocates of international gun prohibition are using the United Nations to deny and then eliminate the right of self-defense. For example, the General Assembly is creating an Arms Trade Treaty which would define arms sales to citizens in the United States as a human rights violation, because American law guarantees the right to use lethal force, when no lesser force will suffice, against a non-homicidal violent felony attack. The article analyzes in detail the Founders of international law - the great scholars in the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries who created the system of international law. The Article then looks at the major legal systems which have contributed to international law, such as Greek law, Roman law, Spanish law, Jewish law, Islamic law, Canon law, and Anglo-American law. In addition, the article covers the full scope of contemporary international law sources, including treaties, the United Nations, constitutions from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and much more. The Article shows that international law - particularly its restraints on the conduct of warfare - is founded on the personal right of self-defense.
self-defense, self-defence, United Nations, firearms, guns
Abstract: The article details Jewish law attitudes towards self-defense and defense of others. Sources examined include the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible), the Talmud, and Jewish law commentators.
Torah, Talmud, self-defense, Jewish
Abstract: A review of state and federal courts decisions on the scope of state police powers suggests that the shift from the more restrictive sic utere principle to the more open salus populi principle may be reversing, with courts -- at least in cases involving sex and marriage -- taking a much more skeptical view of government objectives and justifications.
police power, sic utere, salus populi, sodomy, gay marriage
Abstract: How scientific are the polls reported in the media on the gun control issue? Without arguing for or against gun controls, this article examines the interviewing and sampling methods used by media polls and finds that some polls claiming impressive majorities in favor of severe gun controls may not be accurate.
opinion polls, gun control, interviewer effects, sampling biases
Abstract: This Article investigates the attitudes of six Far Eastern religions - Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism - towards the legitimacy of the use of force in individual and collective contexts. Self-defense is strongly legitimated in the theory and practice of the major Far Eastern religions. The finding is consistent with natural law theory that some aspects of the human personality, including the self-defense instinct, are inherent in human nature, rather than being entirely determined by culture.
Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, self-defense, self-defence, natural law
Abstract: Closely examining the Darfur, Sudan, genocide, and making reference to other genocides, this Article argues that the genocide prevention strategies which are currently favored by the United Nations are ineffective. This Article details the failures of targeted sanctions, United Nations peacekeepers, and other antigenocide programs. Then, this Article analyzes the Genocide Convention and other sources of international human rights law. Because the very strong language of the Genocide Convention forbids any form of complicity in genocide, and because the Genocide Convention is jus cogens (meaning that it prevails over any conflicting national or international law), this Article concludes that the Genocide Convention forbids any interference, including interference based on otherwise valid laws, against the procurement of defensive arms by groups which are being victimized by genocide.
genocide, Sudan, Darfur, Genocide Convention, self-defense, self-defence
Abstract: Responding to an article in the previous issue, this Article suggests that gun prohibition has often been harmful to human rights. We examine Jamaica, Bougainville, Karamoja (Uganda), and East Timor to detail the futility of attempts to prohibits, and to detail how such attempted prohibitions harm other human rights. The article also notes that, while gun control does not itself cause genocide, almost all genocides have been preceded by sustained efforts to disarm the victim populations.
Human rights, genocide, firearms, small arms & light weapons, Jamaica, Bougainville, Karamoja, Uganda, East Timor
Abstract: This article provides a detailed analysis of all Second Amendment cases which have been decided by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The article examines the Circuit's superficial reasoning in its claims that the Second Amendment protects only militiamen, and the Circuit's refusal even to address important sources of authority which took a different view. Most of the Circuit's cases involving the Second Amendment are no longer good law, but in the post-Heller future, the Circuit can get to similiar results in most cases, since the cases involved bans on weapons that are not protected by the Second Amendment (e.g., machine guns) or bans on arms possession by particularly dangerous people (e.g., convicted violent felons). The article will be the lead article in the DU Law Review's annual Tenth Circuit Survey.
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, District of Columbia v. Heller, Second Amendment, gun control
Abstract: The international gun prohibition movement seeks to severely restrict of eliminate the possession of firearms by non-state actors. This article argues that the prohibition on arms possession by non-state actors is contrary to the fundamental principle that the people, not the government, possess the sovereignty. The article examines the relationship between arms possession and sovereignty in several contexts: ancient Greece, Cambodia, Japan, China, East Timor, Bougainville, Niger, Angola, Zimbabwe, Uganda, the Warsaw Pact, and Bosnia.
Arms prohibition, sovereignty, small arms & light weapons, non-state actors
Abstract: Advocates of the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) promise that it will prevent the flow of arms to human rights violators. This Article first examines the ATT, and observes that the ATT, if implemented as promised, would require dozens of additional arms embargoes, including embargoes on much of Africa. The Article then provides case studies of the current supply of arms to the dictatorship in Zimbabwe and to the warlords in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Article argues that the ATT would do nothing to remediate the conditions which have allowed so many arms to be acquired by human rights violators. The ATT would have no more effective force than the embargoes that are already imposed by the UN Security Council; therefore states, including China, which violate current Security Council embargoes could just as well violate ATT embargoes. Accordingly, the ATT is a distraction, and human rights activists should instead examine alternative methods of addressing the problem of arms in the hands of human rights violators.
Arms Trade Treaty, Embargo, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Small Arms, Firearms, Human Rights
Abstract: Contrary to myth of Jewish passivity, many Jews did fight back during the Holocaust. They shut down the extermination camp at Sobibor, rose up in the Warsaw Ghetto, and fought in the woods and swamps all over Eastern Europe. Indeed, Jews resisted at a higher rate than did any other population under Nazi rule. The experience of the Holocaust shows why Jews, and all people of good will, should support the right of potential genocide victims to possess defensive arms, and refutes the notion that violence is necessarily immoral.
holocaust, Jews, firearms, genocide
Abstract: This article examines the religious background of the American Revolution. The article details how the particular religious beliefs of the American colonists developed so that the American people eventually came to believe that overthrowing King George and Parliament was a sacred obligation. The religious attitudes which impelled the Americans to armed revolution are an essential component of the American ideology of the right to keep and bear arms.
American Revolution, religion, right to keep and bear arms, Puritans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians
Abstract: At the beginning of the second millennium, there was no separation of church and state, and kings ruled the church. Tyrannicide was considered sinful. By the end of the thirteenth century, however, everything had changed. The Little Renaissance that began in the eleventh century led to a revolution in political and moral philosophy, so that using force to overthrow a tyrannical government became a positive moral duty. The intellectual revolution was an essential step in the evolution of Western political philosophy that eventually led to the American Revolution.
Roman Catholic, self-defense, self-defence, Aquinas, Scholastics, John of Salisbury
Abstract: This Paper examines some of the benefits and dangers of Taiwan's deepening economic ties to China. In brief, the expansion of cross-Strait economic relations has benefited Taiwan economically, but may pose serious dangers to Taiwan's democratic sovereignty. China's rising Comprehensive National Power - which aims to suppress Taiwan's sovereignty and self-government - has been significantly enhanced by investment from Taiwan itself. China's trade policies are directed for political purposes, particularly for drawing the people of Taiwan into a subordinate relationship with the Chinese dictatorship. China's strategy has already succeeded in imposing self-censorship on many Taiwanese voices, including many businesses and more and more of the media, and in forcing Taiwan businesses with Chinese investments to support Beijing's agenda. To address the problem, Taiwan should make sure that all trade policy decisions are made with long-term security considerations foremost. With security as the prime consideration, Taiwan should consider the following policy approaches: * Continue to expand in-bound tourism from China, and follow through on plans to allow Chinese students to study in Taiwan. Both approaches can help the people of Taiwan change the hearts of the Chinese people - a crucial step towards Taiwan's long-term survival. * Do not expand the list of currently allowed imports of any Chinese products intended for human or animal consumption. The poisoning danger is too high, and no system of inspection can provide sufficient safety. * Reform the new lobbying law so that it does not prevent face-to-face meetings between Taiwan government officials and non-Chinese foreign business people. * Take all possible steps to promote trade with Taiwan's non-Chinese regional neighbors. Look for ways to orient Taiwan's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) away from China and towards India. * Dramatically reform Taiwan's overgrown regulatory system, which greatly impedes business formation in Taiwan. * Require that all new Taiwanese FDI in China go exclusively to businesses which allow workers to elect members to a council which will present workers' concerns to the management. This reform may help promote democracy and civil liberty within China, and thus enhance Taiwan's security in the long run.
Taiwan, sovereignty, independence, China, trade, human rights
Abstract: Experiments in tightening gun-control laws have eroded the right of self defense and failed to stop serious crime. Studies Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Gun control, self-defense, crime, Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia
Abstract: This article examines human rights abuses stemming from the enforcement of confiscation or similar laws. Part I conducts a case study of the U.N.-supported gun confiscation program in Uganda, a program which has directly caused massive, and fatal, violations of human rights. Part II examines a similar gun confiscation program, with similar results, in Kenya. Part III describes the recent government attempts to disarm South African citizens, and details how the implementation of antigun laws has caused extensive violations of civil and human rights, although not the government-perpetrated murder, torture, arson, and ethnic cleansing that have been endemic in Kenya and Uganda. Part IV reports on survey data and other evidence from around the world which suggest one reason why gun confiscation programs can result in major human rights violations: most gun-owners possess their firearm for personal and family defense. Therefore, gun confiscation must be enforced by extremely violent and intrusive measures. We conclude by offering two caveats for disarmament programs. First, that voluntary disarmament will generally be possible only after a government has proven that it will protect the security of the people who would be disarmed. Second, that coercive attempts to disarm people who still need guns to defend themselves - including for protection from predatory governments - are likely to lead to massive resistance, and to an escalating cycle of human rights abuses by government forces, and re-armament by the victim population.
Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, gun confiscation, disarmament
Abstract: This Article analyzes the changes in orthodox Christian attitudes towards defensive violence. While the article begins in the 19th century and ends in the 21st, most of the Article is about the 20th century. The article focuses on American Catholicism and on the Vatican, although there is some discussion of American Protestantism. In the nineteenth and early in the twentieth centuries, the traditional Christian concepts of Just War and of the individual's duty to use force to defend himself and his family remained uncontroversial, as they had been for centuries. Disillusionment over World War One turned many Catholics and Protestants towards pacifism. Without necessarily adopting pacifism as a theory, they adopted pacifism as a practice. World War Two and the early Cold War ended the pacifist interlude for all but a few radical pacifists. Beginning in the 1960s, much of the American Catholic leadership, like the leadership of mainline Protestant churches, turned sharply Left. Although churches did not repudiate their teachings on Just War, many Catholic and mainline Protestant leaders seemed unable to find any circumstances under which American or Western force actually was legitimate. Pacifism and anti-Americanism marched hand in hand. Today, pacifism now has greater respectability within orthodox Christianity than any time in the past 1700 years. Among the influential thinkers profiled in this Article are all Popes from World War II to the present, Dorothy Day and her Catholic Worker Movement, and the Berrigan Brothers. The article suggests that some recent trends in pacifist or quasi-pacifist approaches have been unduly influenced by hostility to the United States, and by the use of narrowly-focused emotion rather than the rigorous analysis that has characterized Catholic philosophy.
Catholic, Berrigan, Wiegel, Dorothy Day, John Courtney Murray
Abstract: Under shari'a law, non-Muslims, known as dhimmi, have been forbidden to possess arms, and to defend themselves from attacks by Muslims. The disarmament is one aspect of the pervasive civil inferiority of non-Muslims, a status known as dhimmitude. This Essay examines the historical effects of the shari'a disarmament, based on three books by Bat Ye'or, the world's leading scholar of dhimmitude. As Ye'or details, the disarmament had catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the direct loss of the dhimmi's ability to defend themselves. The essay concludes by observing how pretend gun-free zones on college campuses turn the adults there into 21st century dhimmi, unable to defend themselves against murderous predators.
shari'a, sharia, dhimmi, dhimmitude, disaramament, Virginia Tech
Abstract: Many twenty-first century Americans believe that they have a God-given right to possess arms as a last resort against tyranny. One of the most important sources of that belief is the struggle for freedom of conscience in the United Kingdom during the reigns of Elizabeth I and the Stuarts. A moral right and duty to use force against tyranny was explicated by the Scottish Presbyterians George Buchanan and Samuel Rutherford. The free-thinking English Christians John Locke and Algernon Sidney broadened and deepened the ideas of Buchanan and Rutherford. The result was a sophisticated defense of religious freedom, which was to be protected by an armed people ready to resist encroachments on their natural, sacred liberties. The principle that right to arms is the ultimate guarantor of the right to free exercise of religion is one reason why the First and Second Amendments are placed next to each other in the American Bill of Rights.
Right to Bear Arms, George Buchanan, Samuel Rutherford, John Locke, Algernon Sidney, Tyranny
Abstract: Guns and Violence tells a remarkable story of a society's self-destruction, of how a government in a few decades managed to reverse six hundred years of social progress in violence reduction. The book is also a testament to the amazing self-confidence of British governments; Labour and Conservative alike have proceeded with an extreme anti-self-defense agenda, although the agenda has never had much supporting evidence beyond the government's own platitudes.
Great Britain, violence, gun control, Joyce Malcolm
Abstract: Today, many international gun prohibition advocates have recognized that, even though world-wide gun prohibition is not achievable in the near future, gun prohibition can be advanced in individual nations. Single-country (or single-region) gun prohibition is called micro-disarmament. Success stories of micro-disarmament are a very important part of international gun prohibition advocacy. This articles examines six case studies of microdisarmament. In three of those cases - Albania, Bougainville, and Cambodia - microdisarmament has seriously harmed human rights. Limited disarmament in rural Guatemala was followed by a crime wave, but it is not clear that the former caused the latter. In San Miguelito, Panamana, there was a successful program to convince youthful gangsters to surrender their guns, in exchange for participation in a government jobs program. In Mali, northern tribes rebelled against the corrupt central government which starved and oppressed them. After the central kleptocarcy was replaced with a democratic government, the new government recognized that the northern rebellion could not be violently defeated; when the new government agreed to respect the rights of the northern tribes, the northern tribes laid down their arms. In Mali, disarmament was not the cause of peace, but rather the result of a successful war for indigenous self-determination.
Microdisarmament, human rights, Albania, Bougainville, Cambodia, Guatemala, Panama, Mali
Abstract: Examines five recent state supreme court decisions involving the effect of state constitution right to arms clauses on the carrying of concealed handguns. In New Mexico and Missouri, the courts ruled that, although concealed carrying is specifically exempted from the constitutional right, the legislature may create a system for concealed carry licensing. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that there is no right to concealed carry, but persons may carry handguns openly. The Wisconsin Supreme Court held that an absolute prohibition on concealed carry is unconstitutional, as applied to a person's home or business premises. The Rhode Island Supreme Court interpreted the state's two licensing statutes to read one statute as discretionary (may issue) and the other as mandatory (shall issue).
Concealed handgun licensing, concealed carry, shall issue, New Mexico, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, Rhode Island
Abstract: In United States v. Lopez, the United States Supreme Court struck down the federal Gun Free School Zones law as not within congressional power to regulate interstate commerce. This article examines post-Lopez jurisprudence regarding the permissible scope of federal criminal law. Analyzing a wide variety of federal criminal laws challenged in post-Lopez cases (including arson, robbery, gun possession, drugs, violence against women, and abortion clinic disruption), the article shows how courts have followed or evaded Lopez. Studying the proposed federal ban on partial birth abortions, the article suggests that the ban is not a lawful exercise of Congress' interstate commerce authority.
abortion, federalism, commerce clause, lopez, morrison
Abstract: A commonly-cited statistic is that 500,000 people around the world every year are killed by firearms: three hundred thousand in war, and two hundred thousand in peaceful countries. Examining the international data, the article concludes that the data supported by the organizations which created the 500,000 figure do not support the figure. In particular, wartime deaths from firearms are probably closer to 100,000 annually than to 300,000. In response to this article, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey produced a report which supplied much more extensive, and plausible, support for the figure of 200,000 non-war deaths.
Small arms and light weapons, global deaths, World Health Organization
Abstract: Tench Coxe, a member of the second rank of this nation's Founders and a leading proponent of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, wrote prolifically about the right to keep and bear arms. In this Article, the authors trace Coxe's story, from his early writings in support of the Constitution, through his years of public service, to his political writings in opposition to the presidential campaigns of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. The authors note that Coxe described the Second Amendment as guaranteeing an individual right, and believed that an individual right to bear arms was necessary for self-defense and hunting, as well as for militia purposes and protection against oppression by large standing armies. The views of this important Founding Era political commentator and public servant inform the ongoing Second Amendment debate. The authors argue that Coxe's depiction of an individual right to bear arms encompassing hunting, self-defense, and the public militia power supports the "Standard Model" of the Second Amendment prevalent in the legal literature. This Article also discusses Coxe's important role as an economic scholar in early America, and in the creation of the protectionist system of the early Republic, as both an journalistic advocate and as an executive branch official. One of his executive branch positions involved heading the federal government program to give guns to militiamen who could not afford their own.
Tench Coxe, Second Amendment, Right to Keep and Bear Arms, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington
Abstract: Sometimes the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traces the registered sales history of a gun which was used in a crime, or which has been seized by the police. Traced guns are not representative of the broader universe of crime guns. Accordingly, drawing public policy conclusions based on tracing data is unwise.
firearms tracing, BATF, BATFE
Abstract: Book review of Lethal Laws. By Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, & Alan M. Rice. Published by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
Genocide, gun control, Germany, Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda, Armenia
Abstract: This paper analyzes proposals to give municipal governments an exemption from the federal Superfund law (CERCLA). The article acknowledges that some municipalities suffer unfair liability but CERCLA. However, the article suggests that a better approach would be to reform all the unfair liability in CERCLA, rather to produce a special exemption for certain politically powerful parties.
CERLCA, superfund, municipal exemption, environmental protection agency
Abstract: Whenever civil liberties issues are contested, proponents of greater restrictions often chide civil liberties defenders for being unwilling to offer moderate concessions. Frequently, persons advocating restrictions on civil liberties claim that the "moderate" restriction will not infringe the core civil liberty. When rights advocates raise the "slippery slope" argument, they are criticized for being excessively fearful. The goal of the article is to refine our understanding of "slippery slopes" by examining a case in which a civil liberty really did slide all the way down the slippery slope.
The right to arms in Great Britain was entirely unrestricted at the beginning of the twentieth century; as the century ends, the right is dead, and only a feeble, severely constricted privilege to possess certain "sporting" guns remains. The article examines, step-by step, how Britain moved from a strong, unfettered right to near-total prohibition of that right. While each of Britain's incremental steps towards gun control was, in itself, reasonable, the cumulative effect was to destroy the right gradually.
Although the right to arms is the focus of the article, the article also discusses many other civil liberties, and their fate in twentieth century Britain and America. The article concludes that, in light of historical experience, organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association of America, which vigorously resist even the smallest perceived infringements on constitutional rights, may be acting prudently in the long term, even though their "no concessions" stance may appear unreasonable in the short term.
Abstract: Domestic terrorism is not a reason to abrogate constitutional rights, argues this 101-page paper, which discusses the 1996 omnibus federal terrorism bill, and other terror proposals. Topics include: scope of the terrorism problem; Britain's mistaken response to terror; use of the military in law enforcement; the Internet; militias; wiretapping; the FBI; and federalizing local crime.
Abstract: Using case studies from Latin America, Kenya, and Zambia, this article examines the claim of gun prohibition advocates that the presence of small arms is a cause of economic underdevelopment. The article also details the harmful effects of UN policy regarding malaria and AIDS in the Third World.
Underdevelopment, right to arms, Zambia, Kenya, AIDS, Malaria, DDT
Abstract: Historian Nathan Kozuskanich claims that the Second Amendment-like the arms provision of the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution-is only a guarantee of a right of individuals to participate in the militia, in defense of the polity. Kozuskanich’s claim about the Second Amendment is based on two articles he wrote about the original public meaning of the right to arms in Pennsylvania, including the 1776 and 1790 Pennsylvania constitutional arms guarantees.
Part I of this Article provides a straightforward legal history of the right to arms provisions in the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution and of the 1790 Pennsylvania Constitution. We examine Kozuskanich’s claims about constitutional language and history.
Part II investigates Kozuskanich's analysis of Quakers who objected to serving in the militia. According to Kozuskanich, the Quaker's protests against being forced to “bear arms” in the militia demonstrate that “bear arms” is exclusively a military term; therefore the “right to keep and bear arms” is only about owning and carrying militia weapons.
But as it turns out, the Quakers were not as pro-gun as Kozuskanich acknowledges. Some Quakers refused to use firearms for personal defense, or even to carry arms ornamentally. Moreover, a review of Kozuskanich’s citations of writings by Quakers and other pacifists reveals that not a single one expressed any willingness to possess arms outside the militia. Several of the cited sources have nothing to do with pacifists' arms.
Finally, Part III looks at some astonishing assertions made by Kozuskanich that cast doubts about the accuracy of his characterization of the work of other scholars.
Pennsylvania Constitution, right to arms, Second Amendment, Kozuskanich
© 2009 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Policy This page was served by apollo2 in 0.265 seconds.