Armed in America: A History of Gun Rights from Colonial Militias to Concealed Carry - Softcover

Charles, Patrick J.

 
9781633885646: Armed in America: A History of Gun Rights from Colonial Militias to Concealed Carry
Softcover
ISBN 10: 163388564X ISBN 13: 9781633885646
Verlag: Prometheus, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

NOW WITH A NEW PREFACE THAT BRINGS THE FRAUGHT GUN-RIGHTS CONTROVERSY UP TO DATE This accessible legal history describes the way in which the Second Amendment was interpreted throughout most of American history and shows that today's gun-rights advocates have drastically departed from the long-held interpretation of the right to bear arms. This illuminating study traces the transformation of the right to arms from its inception in English and colonial American law to today's impassioned gun-control debate. As historian and legal scholar Patrick J. Charles shows, what the right to arms means to Americans, as well as what it legally protects, has changed drastically since its first appearance in the 1689 Declaration of Rights. Armed in America explores how and why the right to arms transformed at different points in history. The right was initially meant to serve as a parliamentary right of resistance, yet by the ratification of the Second Amendment in 1791 the right had become indispensably intertwined with civic republicanism. As the United States progressed into the 19th century the right continued to change--this time away from civic republicanism and towards the individual-right understanding that is known today, albeit with the important caveat that the right could be severely restricted by the government's police power. Throughout the 20th century this understanding of the right remained the predominant view. But working behind the scenes was the beginnings of the gun-rights movement--a movement that was started in the early 20th century through the collective efforts of sporting magazine editors and was eventually commandeered by the National Rifle Association to become the gun-rights movement known today. Now with a new preface that brings the fraught gun-rights controversy up to date, this book is an invaluable resource for readers looking to sort through the shrill rhetoric surrounding the current gun debate and arrive at an informed understanding of the legal and historical development of the right to arms.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Patrick J. Charles is the author of Historicism, Originalism and the Constitution: The Use and Abuse of History in American Jurisprudence and The Second Amendment: The Intent and Its Interpretation by the States and the Supreme Courtas well as numerous articles in law journals. His writings on the history of the Second Amendment have been cited by Second, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and his book The Second Amendment was cited by Justice Stephen Breyer in the landmark Supreme Court decision McDonald v. City of Chicago. Charles currently serves as a senior historian for United States Special Operations Command, located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. In 2016 and 2014, Charles was awarded the Allan S. Major Award, and is the only two-time recipient of the award. The Major Award is given annually to recognize the top history program out of the over 170 wings and groups in the United States Air Force. Additionally, in 2008, Charles received the Judge John R. Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing. The Judge Brown award is given annually to recognize the top law school student note, article, or unpublished paper in the United States.

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Preface to the Paperback Edition

For the past two decades, gun-rights advocacy organizations, most notably the National Rifle Association (NRA), have been influential in convincing federal, state, and local lawmakers (and in some cases federal and state judges), to view the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” as they do — as a broad right to acquire, own, shoot, and carry firearms in both private and public. This influence ushered in what may best be described as the golden era of gun rights. Consider that for centuries restrictions on carrying firearms in public places were common and their constitutionality was unquestioned. Today, however, the status quo is quite different. At the urging of gun-rights advocates, a number of state legislatures have removed most, if not all, legal barriers to carrying firearms in public places. The same is true of armed self-defense. For centuries, the prevailing rule of law was that it was unlawful to shoot and kill another person unless it was absolutely necessary and deemed reasonable to the average person. But through the lobbying of gun-rights advocates, a number of state legislatures diminished this standard by enacting stand-your-ground laws. Now, all that is necessary for an individual to legally employ armed self-defense in these states is that the individual, in their heart of hearts, believes it to be necessary and reasonable. This includes being able to legally employ armed self-defense against a person who is retreating.

There have been other notable changes to firearms law, but each is bound by two central gun-rights beliefs. The first is that the best way to prevent gun violence is not by controlling or limiting access to guns, but rather by allowing more people to have guns and ensuring that they are able to use them virtually anywhere and everywhere. To gun-rights proponents, such laissez-faire gun policies not only serve as a criminal deterrent but also promote civility because, they believe, people are less likely to engage in fights or disputes given the potential consequences. The second belief is interrelated to the first, and it goes like this — by allowing more people access to guns, we, as Americans, are restoring the Second Amendment to its proper constitutional pedestal.

The chief purpose of Armed in America is to tell the story of how these two central gun-rights beliefs, along with others, came to prevalence. The book explores how the social, political, and legal understanding of the Second Amendment has changed since its 1791 ratification in the Bill of Rights. Certainly, there are other historical themes or lessons to glean from this book, but what I hope readers will take away is that the way the Second Amendment was understood in 1791, 1868, 1934, and even as late as 1968 was not the way it is understood today. This is particularly true when one compares and contrasts the political rhetoric at different points in history. For nearly two centuries, the Second Amendment was virtually nonexistent in political discussions, nor was it even an off-the-cuff talking point in election campaigns. Today, however, after decades of the politicizing of the Second Amendment by gun-rights advocates, the issue of gun rights is now engrained in America’s political discourse, with some politicians, lawmakers, and political commentators going so far as to exalt the Second Amendment above all other constitutional protections.

As a matter of historiography, it is worth noting that in the year since Armed in America was published, for the first time since 1968, an effective countermovement to gun-rights advocacy is blossoming. This movement came in the wake of the February 14, 2018, deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where seventeen people were killed and another seventeen people injured. Many of the shooting victims took the lead in calling for gun control, and, to the surprise of many political experts, were ultimately successful in convincing enough Florida lawmakers to enact the state’s first new firearms restrictions in more than twenty years. It was an outcome achieved despite the best efforts of gun-rights advocates to prevent it.

The success achieved by the Parkland shooting victims — in a state historically known for being a laboratory for gun-rights advocacy, no less — emboldened other shooting victims, as well as those indirectly affected by shootings, to become more politically active. Lawmakers took notice, and, for the first time in over two decades, whether they were running for election at the federal, state, or local level, a number of political candidates ran on a platform of supporting sensible gun control. This was even the case in hotly contested races, where the longstanding perception was that supporting gun control was a losing political issue. But seeing that a number of outspoken gun-control-supporting candidates won these races, the 2018 elections may have altered the political landscape on gun control for the 2020 election, and for subsequent elections.

Of course, whether or not this new movement for sensible gun control has any political staying power remains unknown. But if past is prologue, as I detail in this book, it is certain that Americans have born witness to this type of gun-control groundswell many times before, and in every instance, without fail, gun rights eventually reasserts itself as a potent political force.

As for whether the answer to reducing gun-related violence is the advancement of gun rights or the instituting of new gun controls, this book does not provide an answer. That is something that readers must ultimately decide for themselves. However, I do believe that this book will at least show readers that facts and evidence matter. For anyone, whether they support gun rights or gun control, to be guided purely by conviction — although this is undoubtedly their natural right — is to perpetuate the half-century gun-rights–gun-control political divide, not resolve it. With this statement, I am not conveying any new, deep wisdom. It is common sense, yet it is something that is becoming increasingly forgotten within our current, overpoliticized, hyperpartisan climate. In the words of Sandra Parks, who wrote an essay on gun violence titled “Our Truth,” and who, at the young age of thirteen, was recently struck and killed by a stray bullet, “The truth begins with us. Instead of passing each other like ships in the night, we must fight until our truths stretch to the ends of the world.”

This is sound advice for us all.

Patrick J. Charles
December 3, 2018

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Verlag
Prometheus
Erscheinungsdatum
2019
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
163388564X
ISBN 13 
9781633885646
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
558
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande

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