Why Can’t We Be Like France? How the Right to Bear Arms Got Left Out of the Declaration of Rights and How Gun Registration Was Decreed Just in Time for the Nazi Occupation

Abstract

Should the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be watered down to protect little if any right of the people to keep and bear arms according to European models? Disregarding that the United States originated in its Revolution based on that very right, recent suggestions by some Justices on the Supreme Court appear to think so. This same debate has been played out in Congress, where registration of firearms, supported by arguments in support of European models, have been rejected. This article counsels “be careful what you wish for,” using the experiences of France as the paradigm.

Keywords: Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution, European models, France, United States, Nazi, gun registration, right to bear arms