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Volume II,
Number 5
July-August 1998
edited by Robert Knautz
guest edited by Stephanie Frey
with assistance by Kevin B. O'Reilly
This spotlight is part of our special Fourth of July Features
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
To you, this may seem to be an explicit, uncontestable Constitutional protection of gun rights.
So, what's the problem?
For generations, the Second Amendment has been the black sheep of the Bill of Rights. Even Constitutional watchdogs like the ACLU have a hard time giving it their support. Add a rash of schoolyard shootings to an already touchy subject and you have the makings of a Policy Spotlight.
Many gun-control advocates claim that the Second Amendment should no longer be taken literally. Perhaps the right of an individual to bear arms is a relic of a time gone by, when an average citizen still had no reason to trust his government. And technology has built bigger and more destructive weapons, so the average American citizen doesn't need to keep them in his home.
The wording of the Second Amendment itself has come under scrutiny, with some believing that it was never intended to protect individuals' rights, but rather to give the states the power to keep a militia.
Gun rights defenders take the wording of the Second Amendment very literally. To illustrate the original intent of the Founding Fathers, they cite the history of vulnerability and persecution that preceded the American Revolution -- the history that led to the assurance of the personal right to keep and bear arms.
These advocates still see guns as a vital part of the system of checks and balances in which an armed citizenry can defend its rights against possible government encroachment. And on a more basic and immediate level, gun rights advocates believe that an armed nation is a safer nation. Criminals are less likely to attack those who are capable of defending themselves. Guns are the great equalizers.
Two major gun-control laws were instituted in 1993 and 1994. In 1993 came the Brady Act, which imposes a five business day waiting period for the purchase of guns and requires local law enforcement to do background checks on anyone wishing to buy a gun. The Assault Weapons Ban was signed into law in 1994, banning the manufacture or importation of 16 different types of semi-automatic weapons. Gun rights advocates have been working for the repeal of these laws.
Whether you're an activist, scholar, or just looking to update yourself on the legal and philosophical battles over gun rights, we hope that the free-market resources below will help you untangle the issues.
For a biased free-market report on the biased left-wing reporting in the mass media, see J.D. Tuccille's Media Spotlight. And when you have questions or comments of your own, please click over to this month's Spotlight Forum on Gun Rights.
Free-Market.Net Partners
David B. Kopel, a Colorado attorney, tackles gun control fallacies from the standpoint of trust: the trust which we must place in fellow citizens, and the trust that the government must place in its citizens. Read Kopel's Policy Analysis, Trust the People: The Case Against Gun Control.
Author Jeffrey Snyder discusses the merits of the "shall-issue" system vs. discretionary licensing, and offers refutations of some common gun control points in Crime, Self-Defense, and the Right to Carry a Gun.
The Gloves are Off: States vs. Feds is an analysis of the case of Printz vs. the United States, the Brady Bill, and their relation to the tug of war on gun control that goes on between the federal government and the states.
David Kopel also wrote a book asking whether the United States should keep pace with the gun-control policies of other industrialized countries. The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America adopt the gun controls of other democracies? is for sale online at the Cato bookstore.
Responsibility over gun control seems to creep into lots of government agencies. The Center for Disease Control has been doing research for the gun control lobby. Learn all about it in Public Health Pot Shots.
Crime and the right to gun ownership do not go hand-in-hand. David Polsby thinks that the latter prevents the former. Read Firearms and Crime to learn more.
The International Society for Individual Liberty
Part of ISIL's educational pamphlet series, Jacob Hornberger's Gun Control, Patriotism, and Civil Disobedience is a treatise on gun rights with an emphasis on true patriotism and how it is reflected in civil disobedience.
The Nevada Policy Research Institute
Listen to a radio transcript concerning the gun control bias of the media at large. It's called Media Gun Grabbers.
Another radio transcript, this one paying tribute to A Decade of Packin' Heat, celebrates the 10th anniversary of the first "right to carry" law.
The Pacific Research Institute
Israel's armed civilians have been a large factor in keeping Israel's murder rate so low. In Making the Case for Gun Ownership: Israel-U.S. Contrast, Don Kates considers whether a similar approach might be the way for the U.S. to go.
Free-Market.Net Member and contributing writer J.D. Tuccille is well known for his work online at The Mining Company's Civil Liberties site, which hosts a huge number of relevant links and a few of Tuccille's earlier writings on the subject of guns in the United States and around the world.
When it comes to defenders of gun rights, no doubt the NRA springs to mind. Although criticized by many gun-rights advocates for their willingness to compromise, there is no denying what the NRA has accomplished in keeping guns (somewhat) legal in the United States.
Read their Second Amendment Fact Sheet for a summary of everything from the Founding Fathers' intentions to federal court cases.
The Real Reasons for Gun Control is a look at the BATF as an enforcer of civil obedience and submission.
In Do Concealed Handgun Laws Save Lives? legal scholar John Lott discusses the implications of his research on crime levels in states which issue concealed-carry permits.
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
JPFO executive and one-man conversation-starter Aaron Zelman covers everything from the Talmud to the state of Israel in a broad attack on the Jewish anti-gun orthodoxy called Jews and Gun Control: Fear of Freedom or Freedom From Fear?
In Proven Solutions to Ending School Shootings, Zelman interviews the German editor of the most popular gun magazine in Europe about the connection between gun control and the recent rash of schoolyard shootouts.
Another Zelman interview features a Holocaust survivor who denounces the current anti-gun movement.
"The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington" has so much excellent information available through its Web site that it's hard to know where to begin. Mostly, the Web site helps to alert readers to important anti-gun measures being considered in Congress and by state legislatures.
There's lots of information here about the attempt to repeal the Brady law, the latest news about the outrageous Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), and the assault weapons ban travesty, just to name a few.
The World Wide Web Gun Defense Clock
"Every 13 seconds an American gun owner uses a firearm in defense against a criminal." Quotes and facts like this litter this gem of a Web
page from J. Neil Schulman, the author of "Stopping Power," a popular book about the right to armed self-defense.
For an overview of the Supreme Court and its shifting historical attitude towards the Second Amendment, read The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment.
Jeffrey Snyder argues in A Nation of Cowards that gun rights are necessary for the preservation of our individual power and responsibility (i.e. we are qualified to protect ourselves and should not give up our right to self-defense to other armed forces).
The Second Amendment: Toward an Afro-American Reconsideration is one black American's view of the issue. One quotable line: "A society with a dismal record of protecting a people has a dubious claim on a right to disarm them."
The Past and Future of the Individual and Right to Arms explores the Second Amendment in terms of its English roots and its relevance to the rest of the Constitution.
In The ACLU: Gun Control, the American Civil Liberties Union explains why they don't think gun ownership is a civil liberty.
This is a brief rundown of gun laws, from one of America's largest gun control advocates: Handgun Control, Inc.. It covers both state and federal levels, making a good overview of where the U.S. stands right now.
Here is everything you've ever wanted to know about the Brady Law, all on one Web page.
What are these so-called "assault rifles" the gun-control zealots keep
talking about? Check out the Assault Rifle Fact Sheet #1: Definitions and Background, a comprehensive guide to assault rifles, what they can do, how they work, and where they came from.
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
, founded in 1995, is now a part of ISIL.
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