Scottish Factors and the Origins of the Second Amendment: Some Reflections on David Thomas Konig's Rediscovery of the Caledonian Background to the American Right to Arms

Abstract

Engages Konig's thesis that knowledge of the Scottish militia's suspension after the Act of Union in 1707 shaped American understanding of the constitutional right to arms, and suggests that English and domestic North American perspectives remained the dominant influences on constitutional discourse in the United States when the Second Amendment was drafted and ratified.

Keywords: David Konig, Second Amendment, original understanding, militia, classical republicanism, Scotland, England, eighteenth century