The original public meaning of texts like the Second Amendment, or of the 1328 Statute of Northampton, includes the social context, and social norms, of the relevant period. The semantic meaning of the words in these legal texts must be situated within the context of norms that people took for granted. The crucial role of […]
The Statute of Northampton of 1328 remains central to the current debate surrounding the limits and protections the Second Amendment provides to carry arms in public.[1] The Statute provided that “no man great nor small, of what condition soever he be, except the king’s servants in his presence…come before the King’s justices, or other of […]
Despite the deadly effects of firearms, ordinary civilians can often own and publicly carry them with far less training than is required of peace officers. A peace officer and a civilian are both capable and authorized by law to use a publicly carried weapon in a deadly manner. Yet, civilians can frequently access these deadly […]
Several more articles and works in progress have been published or posted publicly in the last few weeks. They all raise thought-provoking arguments, and I was especially interested to see Patrick Charles’s article (again, no relation to me) on guns and race–it adds new texture to the competing paradigms that characterize either all gun control […]
As we gear up for the Supreme Court’s hearing of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen in November, other firearms law and Second Amendment issues continue to be litigated in lower courts and debated in the literature. Here are new pieces that take on the issue of public carry (just recently posted to […]
In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court will answer: Did New York’s denial of petitioners’ applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense violate the Second Amendment? New York bars open carry of handguns, and the state has a “may issue” licensing scheme to carry a concealed handgun. This means […]
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 […]
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 […]
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Caniglia v. Strom. At issue in the case was whether police could enter a home and search and seize items without a warrant when conducting “community caretaking functions” (i.e., not traditional criminal investigation). The Court had held in 1973, in Cady v. Dombrowski, that […]
Earlier this week, the Texas Law Review published Pointing Guns, an essay jointly co-authored by me, Joseph, Darrell, and our colleague Sam Buell. The essay explores the cultural phenomenon of gun displays and the legal line separating lawful displays from unlawful brandishing and related crimes. Here’s the abstract: The American gun debate is increasingly populated […]
Today, I’m highlighting several forthcoming articles by established scholars and veterans of firearms law scholarship. These pieces raise interesting and often under-explored aspects of the legal regulation of guns. Drury D. Stevenson, Workplace Violence, Firearm Prohibitions, and the New Gun Rights, University of San Francisco Law Review, Vol. 55, 2021 Abstract: Workplace violence is surprisingly […]
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 […]
A few new student notes about firearms law have been published recently or will be soon. Once again, it’s great to see the field growing! Danny Li, The First Amendment Weaponized: When Guns Become Public Discourse, William & Mary Bill of Rights. J. (forthcoming) Here’s the Abstract: This Article discusses First Amendment challenges asserted against […]
In Lara v. Evanchick, Judge William Stickman IV, a recent Trump appointee on the federal district court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, upheld last week the state’s licensing law and open carry restrictions as applied to 18-20 year-olds. Under Pennsylvania law, only those over 21 are eligible to obtain the necessary license to carry a […]
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 late February 2021, the American Bar Association adopted Resolution 21M111, “Opposition to Guns In Polling Places,” which is short enough to insert as a single block quote: RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to enact statutes, rules and regulations to prohibit the possession and display of […]
Last Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling in Young v. Hawaii, which upheld Hawaii’s permitting scheme requiring a person to prove a heightened need for self-defense in public to secure a permit to openly carry a handgun. At its conference last Friday, the Supreme Court considered the cert petition in New York State Rifle […]
Did the Ninth Circuit just limit the Second Amendment right to the home? That’s the first question I asked myself after reading the en banc decision in Young v. Hawaii, issued this past Wednesday. In a wide-ranging opinion spanning more than 100 pages, conservative George W. Bush appointed Judge Jay Bybee wrote for a 7-4 […]
I’m very happy that the video is now available from our terrific discussion last fall with Jennifer Carlson on her compelling new book, Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement, and the Politics of Race. Drawing on local and national newspapers, interviews with close to eighty police chiefs, and a rare look at gun licensing […]
Last December, the Kansas Court of Appeals issued an interesting unpublished opinion in Bader v. Concealed Carry Licensing Unit. The dispute concerned Ryan Bader’s claim to a concealed carry handgun license. The state’s Concealed Carry Licensing Unit (CCLU) denied Bader a license because he had previously been convicted of attempted robbery, though Bader had the […]
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 […]
After last week’s riot at the Capitol, the acting House Sergeant-at-Arms implemented a new policy requiring House members to be screened for weapons before entering the House chamber. On Tuesday, June 12, the U.S. Capitol Police declined to admit Rep. Lauren Boebert (R.-Colo.) to the floor of the House of Representatives after she refused to […]
In the past several weeks, there have been some important Second Amendment cases decided. I examined the Ninth Circuit’s decision on large-capacity magazines last week and offered some thoughts on the reasoning that led the court to strike down CA’s ban. There have also been a few other notable developments. In Association of New Jersey […]
[Ed. note: This guest blog post is part of the Center’s Mini-Symposium on papers presented at the 2020 Firearms Law Works-in-Progress Workshop.] A heavily armed man, Dmitriy Andreychenko, walks into his local Walmart, and was eventually taken out in handcuffs. Another heavily armed man, Patrick Crusius, walked into his local Walmart and left under the same […]
In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court recognized an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. Although the decision settled whether persons have a right to keep arms when they are not enrolled in an organized militia, the decision raised many follow-up questions. Is the Second Amendment limited to keeping arms […]
