State laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons were upheld on the basis that open carry was lawful. In the antebellum period, going armed was no offense unless it was done in a manner and with the intent to terrorize others. It was considered a right of Englishmen, and the American Founders extended its scope, as they did with other rights recognized in the state and federal constitutions. The right to bear arms has deep roots in America’s history and tradition. These discretionary licensing schemes have become a major issue in Second Amendment litigation, with some federal circuits upholding such laws and others invalidating them. These outlier states make it a felony to bear arms for self-defense and routinely incarcerate their own citizens and unsuspecting travelers for gun possession. Only six states-California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York-grant discretion to the government, acting through law enforcement agencies, to restrict that right to only those few persons it decides “need” or have “good cause” to carry a firearm. Today, the overwhelming majority of states already recognize a right to carry a loaded and unlocked handgun in public, either with or without a license and subject to place restrictions. bear arms, shall not be infringed” protects the liberty to carry firearms outside the home for self-defense or other lawful purposes. In this article, I address the extent to which the Second Amendment guarantee that “the right of the people to. They would thus enshrine in the Second Amendment the right to bear arms. They were also well aware that the same firearms were used for protection against persons and wild animals that would do harm. The Founders who drafted the Bill of Rights in 1789 recalled the British efforts to confiscate private firearms from the American colonists as well as the use of such firearms to start and help win the American Revolution. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “Here once the embattled farmers stood / And fired the shot heard round the world.” Thus was launched the American Revolution and, before long, a new country that became the United States of America. These Americans did not bear arms in their living rooms or before their fireplaces, but carried and bore their private firearms prominently in public-specifically, on the town common of Concord, Massachusetts. On April 19, 1775, a group of Americans bearing their own firearms stood before a contingent of British Redcoat soldiers representing the greatest military power on Earth. But it also implied that the right extends outside the home, where unfriendly humans and animals would be encountered. When counsel replied that those words referred only to “a military context,” Justice Kennedy appeared to disagree by asking the further question, “It had nothing to do with the concern of the remote settler to defend himself and his family against hostile Indian tribes and outlaws, wolves and bears and grizzlies and things like that?” This question suggested that he read the Amendment to protect individual rights. Heller, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy asked counsel for the government whether the Second Amendment’s second clause-“the right of the people to keep and bear arms” -concerned something besides the militia. To join the debate, please email us at oral argument in the seminal case of District of Columbia v. We also invite responses from our readers. Whenever we publish an article that advocates for a particular position, as here, we offer links to other perspectives on the issue, including ones opposed to the position taken in the article. Any expressions of opinion are those of the author. The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public policy matters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |