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Full-Text Articles in Law
Firearms Law And Scholarship Beyond Bullets And Bodies, Joseph Blocher, Jacob D. Charles, Darrell A. H. Miller
Firearms Law And Scholarship Beyond Bullets And Bodies, Joseph Blocher, Jacob D. Charles, Darrell A. H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
Academic work is increasingly important to court rulings on the Second Amendment and firearms law more generally. This article highlights two recent trends in social science research that supplement the traditional focus on guns and physical harm. The first strand of research focuses on the changing ways that gun owners connect with firearms, with personal security, status, identity, and cultural markers being key reasons people offer for possessing firearms. The second strand focuses on broadening our understanding of the impact of guns on the public sphere beyond just physical safety. This research surfaces the ways that guns can create fear, …
End The Popularity Contest: A Proposal For Second Amendment 'Type Of Weapon' Analysis, Cody Jacobs
End The Popularity Contest: A Proposal For Second Amendment 'Type Of Weapon' Analysis, Cody Jacobs
Faculty Scholarship
The Supreme Court’s recognition of an individual Second Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense raised many questions about the scope and content of that right. One issue that will become increasingly important in the years ahead, but that has received relatively little attention from scholars and courts, is the question of which “arms” are protected by that right. The Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller purports to lay out a test that asks whether the weapon at issue is in “common use” at the time the case is decided. This article critiques that test, arguing that …
Analogies And Institutions In The First And Second Amendments: A Response To Professor Magarian, Darrell A.H. Miller
Analogies And Institutions In The First And Second Amendments: A Response To Professor Magarian, Darrell A.H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
In this essay, Professor Darrell Miller responds to Professor Gregory Magarian's criticism of the manner in which judges, advocates, and scholars have used the First Amendment to frame Second Amendment interpretive questions.
Firearm Localism, Joseph Blocher
Firearm Localism, Joseph Blocher
Faculty Scholarship
Second Amendment doctrine is largely becoming a line-drawing exercise, as courts try to determine which “Arms” are constitutionally protected, which “people” are permitted to keep and bear them, and in which ways those arms and people can be regulated. But the developing legal regime has yet to account for one potentially significant set of lines: the city limits themselves. In rural areas, gun crime and gun control are relatively rare, and gun culture is strong. In cities, by contrast, rates of violent gun crime are comparatively high, and opportunities for recreational gun use are scarce. And from colonial Boston to …
Firearms Policy And The Black Community: An Assessment Of The Modern Orthodoxy, Nicholas J. Johnson
Firearms Policy And The Black Community: An Assessment Of The Modern Orthodoxy, Nicholas J. Johnson
Faculty Scholarship
The heroes of the modern civil rights movement were more than just stoic victims of racist violence. Their history was one of defiance and fighting long before news cameras showed them attacked by dogs and fire hoses. When Fannie Lou Hamer revealed she kept a shotgun in every corner of her bedroom, she was channeling a century old practice. And when delta share cropper Hartman Turnbow, after a shootout with the Klan, said “I don’t figure I was being non-nonviolent, (yes non-nonviolent) I was just protecting my family”, he was invoking an evolved tradition that embraced self-defense and disdained political …
Second Things First: What Free Speech Can And Can’T Say About Guns, Joseph Blocher
Second Things First: What Free Speech Can And Can’T Say About Guns, Joseph Blocher
Faculty Scholarship
Professor Blocher responds to Gregory Magarian’s article on the implications of the First Amendment for the Second.
Guns, Inc.: Citizens United, Mcdonald, And The Future Of Corporate Constitutional Rights, Darrell A. H. Miller
Guns, Inc.: Citizens United, Mcdonald, And The Future Of Corporate Constitutional Rights, Darrell A. H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
The Supreme Court began its 2009 Term by addressing the constitutional rights of corporations. It ended the Term by addressing the incorporated rights of the Constitution. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a five-member majority of the Court held that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend their own money on political advocacy. A corporation generally is no different than a natural person when it comes to the First Amendment - at least as it relates to political speech. In McDonald v. City of Chicago, a plurality of the Court held that the Second Amendment to the United …
Retail Rebellion And The Second Amendment, Darrell A. H. Miller
Retail Rebellion And The Second Amendment, Darrell A. H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
When, if ever, is there a Second Amendment right to kill a cop? This piece seeks to answer that question. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment codifies a natural right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. That right to self-defense extends to both private and public threats, including self-defense against agents of a tyrannical government. Moreover, the right is individual. Individuals -- not just communities -- have the right to protect themselves from public violence. Individuals -- not just militias -- have the right to defend themselves against tyranny. In McDonald …