Legislative Fellow, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich. See profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-j-charles-110b184/
The claim that all gun control is inherently racist is relatively new. The claim grew to prominence in gun rights circles in the 1990s after Robert Cottrol and Raymond Diamond published their seminal 1991 article “The Second Amendment: Toward an Afro-Americanist Reconsideration.” That same year National Rifle Association (NRA) assistant counsel Stefan B. Tahmassebi proclaimed […]
In the upcoming Supreme Court case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (20-843), the petitioners and several accompanying amici are characterizing New York’s 1911 Sullivan Law as having deep anti-immigrant roots. In one section of petitioners’ brief it is alleged that “New York was at the forefront of this new wave of […]
Since the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its en banc decision in the much-anticipated Second Amendment outside the home case Young v. Hawaii, there has been a parade of critical commentary from gun rights circles. Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt described the decision as both embodying a hypocritical “‘guns for […]
In 1967, California codified into law A.B 1591, otherwise known at the Mulford Act. Sponsored by Oakland assemblyman Don Mulford, A.B. 1591 made it a felony to publicly carry any firearm—either openly or concealed—in public places without a governmental license to do so. The law came about after the events of May 2, 1967, when […]
Ninety years ago today, in the December edition of American Rifleman, the National Rifle Association (NRA) published the editorial “Merry Christmas—And Gun Laws.” The editorial’s anniversary is noteworthy for two reasons. First, its publication marked the first time that the NRA provided guidance as to the types of firearms legislation the organization would and would […]
To say the history of gun rights is full of hyperboles, misnomers, and myths would be an understatement. Time and time again, when historians examine the history of gun rights, it turns out that what is long claimed to be settled history is more nominal than real. There is an abundance of examples of this, […]
