Given the recent spate of merits and amicus briefing in the Bruen case that challenges New York’s concealed carry law, some new scholarship analyzing that issue is especially timely. Below I highlight those and some other new firearms law scholarship: Patrick J. Charles, The Invention of the Right to “Peaceable Carry” in Modern Second Amendment […]
A few months ago, the Supreme Court decided an important Fourth Amendment case, Torres v. Madrid. The case struck me for its discussion of guns—and how they may require a reappraisal of traditional rules of criminal procedure (namely, what constitutes a seizure). But though I read it for the gun angle, the case offered much […]
Earlier this month, in State v. Christen, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld against a Second Amendment challenge the defendant’s conviction for going armed while intoxicated. The decision was 6-1, with Judge Brian Hagedorn writing a concurring opinion and Judge Rebecca Grassl Bradley casting the lone dissenting vote. In December of last year, the Ohio Supreme […]
On Monday, the Supreme Court granted review in an important Second Amendment case, which sets it up to issue a major decision on the topic for the first time in more than a decade. Below are some answers common questions about the case. What’s the case about? The case–New York State Rifle & Pistol Association […]
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 […]
Starting tonight, CSPAN is airing past events on the Second Amendment in a marathon session. The schedule is here and below is a description of the events, including ones with Darrell as well as other experts who have appeared on this blog and at Center events: Saul Cornell, Patrick Charles, and Brannon Denning, and Adam […]
Among the drama of this past election cycle was a flurry of debate over the question of whether Michiganders could carry their guns to the polls. On October 16, 2020, the Michigan Secretary of State issued a directive prohibiting the open carry of firearms at or within 100 feet of polling places on election day. […]
I just finished Kathleen Belew’s excellent book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, and one story there stuck out to me. It’s a story about racist violence motivating stricter gun regulations with particular resonance for this moment. In 1979, a small group of Black protesters was marching in protest of […]
What can armed protest teach about the case for gun regulation? Reva Siegel and I have just posted our article, When Guns Threaten the Public Sphere: Recovering the Common Law Approach to Public Safety, which is forthcoming as part of the Northwestern Law Review symposium the Center co-sponsored this past fall. Here is the abstract: […]
When I began the research for my recent book, Armed Citizens: The Road from Ancient Rome to the Second Amendment, my goal was to understand the origins of American gun laws. I was hardly alone in this, of course; there is an enormous amount of contemporary research on the original goals of the Second Amendment, […]
