Second Amendment Commons^™

Beware The "Terror Gap": Closing The Loophole Between The U.S. Terrorist Watchlist System And The Right To Bear Arms, Elizabeth M. Sullivan

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arkansas Open Carry: Understanding Law Enforcement’S Legal Capability Under A Difficult Statute, J. Harrison Berry

Arkansas Law Review

“There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms.” Although the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller established a fundamental understanding that individuals have a right to own a gun for personal use, the Court recognized that, as with all fundamental rights, the individual right to keep and bear arms is “not unlimited.” A few limits the Court mentioned included “prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of …

Gun Control: Political Fears Trump Crime Control, Clayton E. Cramer, Joseph Edward Olson

Maine Law Review

No matter how draconian, gun control laws are weakly enforced (at least in the United States) and seldom of any significant effect in reducing crime. The kind of citizen who will comply with a gun law is the opposite of the person who will use a gun to facilitate his or her crimes. The problem of weak enforcement is highlighted by a candid interview with the author of the District of Columbia’s 1968 gun registration scheme while the District’s 1975-76 gun ban was under consideration: The problem, [Hechinger] said, is the failure of the mayor and police department to enforce …

Arming The Second Amendment - And Enforcing The Fourteenth, William Araiza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Guns On Campus: A Look At The First Year Of Concealed Carry At Texas Universities, Aric K. Short

Faculty Scholarship

After years of failed attempts, the Texas Legislature passed "campus carry" in 2015. Under the new law, effective in 2016 for four-year institutions, public universities must allow the concealed carry of handguns by license holders on their premises. Texas's campus carry law is unique when compared to other states that allow concealed carry on college campuses: each university is given the flexibility to create weapons implementation plans, including the establishment of limited gun-free zones. The first year of campus carry implementation by Texas universities has been relatively quiet, with generally uniform implementation rules established by colleges across the state. However, …

Arming The Second Amendment—And Enforcing The Fourteenth, William D. Araiza

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article considers the timely and important question of Congress’s power to enforce the Second Amendment. Such legislation would test the Court’s current enforcement power doctrine, which ostensibly acknowledges a congressional role in vindicating constitutional rights while insisting on judicial supremacy in stating constitutional meaning. Second Amendment doctrine is complex and, importantly, methodologically varied. That complexity and variety would require the Court to perform a more nuanced, granular approach to the enforcement power than it has thus far in the modern era.

Part II quickly recaps the Court’s Enforcement Clause jurisprudence. It concludes that its most recent enforcement power cases …

Militias, Muskets, And Machine Guns? The Third Circuit Furthers Inapplicability Of Second Amendment Protection To Machine Gun Possession In United States V. One Palmetto State Armory, Peter J. Adonizio Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Federalism Implications Of Non-Recognition Of Licensure Reciprocity Under The Gun-Free School Zones Act, Royce De R. Barondes

Faculty Publications

The Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) criminalizes firearms possession within 1000 feet of an elementary or secondary school in a State unless the possessor "is licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located" (or one of a few other exceptions applies). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has in correspondence opined licensure through reciprocity does not make one so licensed by the State.

School zones covered by the act are ubiquitous. Were the ATF's interpretation adopted, large swaths of many States' non-rural areas would be prohibited zones for non-residents who carry …

The Second Amendment & Private Law, Cody Jacobs

Faculty Scholarship

The Second Amendment, like other federal constitutional rights, is a restriction on government power. But what role does the Second Amendment have to play—if any—when a private party seeks to limit the exercise of Second Amendment rights by invoking private law causes of action? Private law—specifically, the law of torts, contracts, and property—has often been impacted by constitutional considerations, though in seemingly inconsistent ways. The First Amendment places limitations on defamation actions and other related torts, and also prevents courts from entering injunctions that could be classified as prior restraints. On the other hand, the First Amendment plays almost no …

“Time Enough” For Scrutiny: The Second Amendment, Mental Health, And The Case For Intermediate Scrutiny, Benjamin A. Ellis

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Fitting A Gun In A Circle–A How-To Guide: A Comprehensive Look At The Standard Of Review For Gun Regulations Under The Second Amendment, Beth Coplowitz

University of Miami Law Review

In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment case, the Court held that the right to bear arms is an individual right aimed at self-defense in the home. Two years later, McDonald v. City of Chicago extended this right to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. However, lower courts were left with little guidance on what level of scrutiny to apply to gun regulations. As a result, courts have applied various levels of scrutiny including intermediate scrutiny, strict scrutiny, a two-step inquiry that leads to either intermediate or strict scrutiny, and an undue burden standard. Of …

The “True Man” And His Gun: On The Masculine Mystique Of Second Amendment Jurisprudence, C. D. Christensen

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The Supreme Court’s recent Second Amendment jurisprudence raises serious normative questions for the use of self-defense with a firearm. This jurisprudence also implicates our prevailing social norms with respect to socially constructed and structurally pervasive gender roles. I argue that a peculiarly American conception of masculinity underpins the judicial construction of the Second Amendment’s core purpose as guaranteeing the right to armed defense of one’s self and one’s home. The Court’s recent Second Amendment rulings create an individual protection for gun ownership and incorporate the same against the States. But the Court’s reasoning entangles this protection with an implicit valuation …

Classrooms & Curriculum, Devin Walz, Anh Doan, Cathy Tran, Loraina Galarza

Collin College Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference

Panel Chair: Lisa Roy-Davis

Papers Presented:

"Should the State of Texas Allow Public Universities and Colleges to Permit Guns on Campuses?" By Devin Walz

"Pets in the Elementary Classroom" by Anh Doan

"Technology Case Study of K-12 Students" by Cathy Tran

Abstract: Technology is an exponentially revolutionizing tool that has pushed all aspects of society to adapt and grow in the time known as the “Information Age”. The way that humans process information, and the speed at which humans can process information, with technology allows humans to grow more efficiently and effectively. Technology is continually designed to become more optimal …

To Have And To Hold: Factors To Consider Before Divorcing South Carolina From The Concealed Weapons Permit Requirement, Joseph D. Spate

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tort Law Inside Out, Cristina Carmody Tilley

Faculty Publications

For more than a century, scholars have been looking at tort law from the outside in. Theorists committed to external goals like efficient allocation of resources or moral justice have treated tort as a mere vehicle for the achievement of their policy preferences, rather than as a body of law with a discernible internal purpose. It is time to revisit tort on its own terms.

This Article takes its cue from the New Doctrinalists, who urge that extralegal normative insights from fields such as economics or philosophy aid adjudication only when they are directly tethered to legal concepts; that is, …

Kolbe V. Hogan: Hewing To Heller And Taking Aim At A Standard Of Strict Scrutiny For Comprehensive Firearms Legislation, Brett S. Turlington

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Creating Precedents Through Words And Deeds, Harold Krent

All Faculty Scholarship

Book review: Untrodden ground: how presidents interpret the Constitution. By Harold H. Bruff. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. 557 pages. Reviewed by Harold J. Krent

The Second Amendment And “The People”: Who Has The Right To Bear Arms?, 51 J. Marshall L. Rev. 199 (2017), Kasim Carbide

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Regulating Gun Rentals, Ira P. Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

A machine gun overpowers a nine-year-old girl, erratically spraying bullets and accidentally killing her instructor; a perturbed mother slays her son and then takes her own life; a convicted felon circumvents federal prohibitions to access a firearm to commit suicide; and, perhaps most notably, Navy SEAL war veteran Chris Kyle, focus of the movie “American Sniper,” is murdered while attempting to help another veteran recover from post-traumatic stress disorder. We have all seen the headlines, but we have largely ignored the source of this heartbreak. The ramifications of these examples are not merely cinematic, but also involve families suffering from …

Disarming State Action; Discharging State Responsibility, Zanita E. Fenton

Articles

No abstract provided.