Second Amendment Commons^™

"Good Reason" Laws Under The Gun: May-Issue States And The Right To Bear Arms, Jack M. Amaro

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This note proposes a framework for analyzing the point at which discretionary restrictions on the concealed carry of firearms are unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, which, at its core, guarantees the responsible, law-abiding citizen at least the right to use a firearm for self-defense. Although the Supreme Court has yet to affirmatively answer whether and to what extent this right extends beyond the home, every state allows its residents to publicly carry a firearm in some form—be it open or concealed. But states have the power to limit who may exercise this right; and some states curtail it to ...

The Business Of Guns: The Second Amendment & Firearms Commerce, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Pepperdine Law Review

Does the Second Amendment protect commerce in firearms? The simple answer is: yes, to an extent. An individual’s right to possess and use a gun for self-defense in the home is black-letter law after District of Columbia v. Heller. The right to possess and use a gun requires the ability to obtain a gun, ammunition, and firearms training. Therefore, gun dealers, servicers, and training providers receive some constitutional protection as facilitators of their customers’ Second Amendment rights. Whether these constitutional rights belong to firearms-related businesses independently of their customers is unclear. The scope of the Second Amendment matters as ...

What's Going Wrong In Nevada? A Comparative Analysis Of California And Nevada Gun Control Laws As They Relate To Gun Violence, Danielle Chami

CMC Senior Theses

The recent mass shooting on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada has been marked in history as the worst mass shooting in the United States to this point. The details of the shooting beg the question, is it coincidence that it happened in Nevada, a state with some of the least restrictive gun control laws? Mass shootings have become an unfortunate part of reality in the United States, but these are fairly uncommon occurrences. While they are horrific and deserve attention, daily gun violence cannot be forgotten. In the face of such a multitude of gun violence, what can ...

Stop And Frisk In A Concealed Carry World, Shawn E. Fields

Washington Law Review

This Article confronts the growing tension between increasingly permissive concealed carry firearms legislation and police authority to conduct investigative stops and protective frisks under Terry v. Ohio. For decades, courts upheld stops based on nothing more than an officer’s observation of public gun possession, on the assumption that anyone carrying a gun in public was doing so unlawfully. That assumption requires reexamination. All fifty states and the District of Columbia authorize their citizens to carry concealed weapons in public, and forty-two states impose little or no conditions on the exercise of this privilege. As a result, officers and courts ...

The Constitutional Politics Heller Launched, Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Second Amendment Challenges: What Level Of Constitutional Scrutiny Applies?, C M. Timpson

GGU Law Review Blog

Proponents of the Second Amendment stand firm in their belief that there should be little to no restrictions on a person’s ability to obtain and maintain ownership of a gun. Others believe there should be some limitations on the right to “keep and bear arms.” In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court upheld a person’s individual right to bear arms for lawful purposes. In Heller, the Court also refused to apply rational basis review to challenges of laws that impact a person’s enumerated rights such as the guarantee against double jeopardy, right to counsel and ...

The First Amendment, The Second Amendment, And 3d Firearms, Timothy Zick

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Second Thoughts About Stun Guns, Rene Reyes

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) recently declared that the Commonwealth’s statutory ban on stun guns violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The SJC had previously upheld the statute against constitutional challenge in Commonwealth v. Caetano, but the reasoning behind this holding was rejected in a brief per curium opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016. However, the guidance given by the Supreme Court in the Caetano litigation was far from unambiguous: it faulted the SJC’s reasoning without opining on the ultimate question of the ban’s constitutionality, thus leaving open the possibility ...

The Context Of Violence: The Lautenberg Amendment & Interpretive Issues In The Gun Control Act, Rachel B. Polan

Brooklyn Law Review

Few areas of the law are as hotly debated as gun control, or as universally condemned as domestic violence – and the Supreme Court’s decisions on the Lautenberg Amendment address both. An amendment to the Gun Control Act, it prohibits persons convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from owning a firearm. The amendment qualifies a predicate conviction as one that has a “force clause” as an element. In particular, while looking at the force in domestic violence, the Supreme Court has acknowledged that one must also look to context: a “squeeze of an arm” of an intimate partner ...

Dignity And Second Amendment Enforcement—Response To William D. Araiza’S, Arming The Second Amendment And Enforcing The Fourteenth, Darrell A. H. Miller

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

William Araiza’s insightful article, Arming the Second Amendment, has one essential, hidden component: dignity. Dignity helps explain the peculiar hydraulics of Congress’s power to enforce section five of the Fourteenth Amendment—a jurisprudence in which the less scrutiny the Court itself applies to a given class or right, the more scrutiny it applies to congressional efforts to protect that same class or right. Dignity helps explain the Court’s halting approach to Reconstruction Amendment enforcement power more generally – an approach in which constitutional versus unconstitutional legislation turns on seemingly insignificant regulatory distinctions. And dignity’s role in § 5 ...

The Privileges And Immunities Of Non-Citizens, R. George Wright

Cleveland State Law Review

However paradoxically, in some practically important contexts, non-citizens of all sorts can rightly claim what amount to privileges and immunities of citizens. This follows from a careful and entirely plausible understanding of the inherently relational, inescapably social, and essentially reciprocal nature of at least some typical privileges and immunities.

This Article contends that the relationship between constitutional privileges and immunities and citizenship is more nuanced, and much more interesting, than usually recognized. Crucially, allowing some non-citizens to invoke the privileges and immunities of citizens often makes sense. The intuitive sense that non-citizens cannot logically claim the privileges or immunities of ...

Second Amendment: D.C. Circuit Court Creates Split On The Constitutionality Of Good-Reason Laws, Madeleine Giese

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Domestic And International Firearm Laws: Can Implementation Be Used To Nationally Decrease Firearm Violence And Mass Shootings, Kenneth Banuelos

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The issue of firearm violence in the United States is highly controversial, as there are sound arguments on both sides of the discussion. Advocates of stricter gun laws often refer to both international and domestic examples that highlight the effectiveness of more restrictive firearm policies. Japan and Australia are two such countries that are continually referred to when a tragedy, such as a mass shooting, occurs in the United States and initial reactions often emphasis a need for fewer guns in the general public. Opposition to the proposed reforms of firearm policies cite the importance of the Second Amendment which ...

A Job For Congress: Medical Marijuana Patients’ Fight For Second Amendment Rights, Kenneth Seligson

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Note begins with Part I section (A), describing the administrative rule and factual background, leading up to the suit in Wilson v. Lynch. Part I section (B) explains the arguments made at the U.S. District Court in Nevada and how the case progressed from the district court to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Then, Part I section (C) analyzes the Ninth Circuit’s application of the two-step test for Second Amendment challenges established in Chovan.

After evaluating the application of the two-step test in Wilson v. Lynch, Part II section (A) reviews the history of cannabis and ...

18 U.S.C. § 922(G)(1) Under Attack: The Case For As-Applied Challenges To The Felon-In-Possession Ban, Kari Lorentson

Notre Dame Law Review

Part I of this Note outlines the relevant statutory scheme governing the felon-in-possession ban, along with its applicable exceptions. Part II surveys landmark Supreme Court precedent related to the Second Amendment— namely, District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. In Part III, this Note conducts an overview of the current circuit split percolating in the courts of appeals. Part IV presents a rationale and justification for permitting judicial review of as-applied challenges to § 922(g)(1). Finally, Part V provides a critique of the Binderup analysis and puts forth an alternative standard to analyze similar cases.

Heller And “Assault Weapons”, David Kopel, Jonathan Lowy, Alan Rostron

Law Review Symposia

A discussion of how Heller has been applied to “assault weapon” bans, with special attention given to the Fourth Circuit’s en banc decision in Kolbe v. Hogan, which held that the popular AR-15 rifle and other “assault weapons” are not protected arms under the Second Amendment.

Moderated by Professor E. Gregory Wallace.

Heller And Public Carry Restrictions, Brannon Denning (Moderator), Joseph Blocher, Jonathan Lowy, George Mocsary, Glenn Reynolds

Law Review Symposia

A discussion of how lower courts have applied Heller to various restrictions on the carrying of firearms in public places, with special attention given to the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision in Wrenn v. District of Columbia, the Ninth Circuit’s en banc decision in Peruta v. County of San Diego, and the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Woollard v. Gallagher.

Heller In The Lower Courts, Brannon Denning, Dennis Henigan, David Kopel, Hannah Shearer

Law Review Symposia

A discussion of how federal circuit courts have applied Heller, with a focus on lower court views of Heller’s holding and scope, the extent to which Heller provides a general framework for constitutional analysis in Second Amendment cases, what guidance Heller provides for resolving cases involving the right to arms in public places, the development of analytical frameworks beyond Heller, and whether lower courts have given proper deference to Heller in their Second Amendment decisions.

Moderated by Professor Sarah Ludington.

Heller: Past, Present, And Future, Joseph Blotcher (Moderator), Alan Gura, Dennis Henigan, Glen Reynolds

Law Review Symposia

A wide-ranging discussion of the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller recognizing the individual right to keep and bear arms, whether that decision has been applied properly in the lower courts, and what the Supreme Court is likely to do with the constitutional right to arms in the future.

Hb 280 - Campus Carry, Taylor Morgan Koshak, Nicholas J. Roger

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act broadens lawful gun owners’ rights by allowing weapons carry license holders to carry concealed guns on property owned or leased by public institutions of postsecondary education. The Act creates exceptions for sporting events, student housing, childcare spaces, classes for a college and career academy and other specialized schools, classrooms for dual enrollment programs, and spaces for administrative disciplinary proceedings. The law creates a misdemeanor penalty for noncompliance, and provides definitions for clarification.