That Every Man be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional RightThis is an authoritative study of the second amendment, using history and current-day analysis. It is one of the only scholarly works on the subject, but has proven widely accessible. Halbrook traces the origins of the Second Amendment back to ancient Greece and Rome, and then through the “freemen” movement in 18th-century England and France. He demonstrates that the framers of the Constitution were conscious of such history when they drafted the Second Amendment, and that the Second Amendment was clearly intended to allow possession of firearms not just for defense of personal life and property but also to prevent government infringement of human liberties. His meticulous, thorough scholarship demonstrates that the right to bear arms is as fundamental a right under the Constitution as freedom of speech and freedom of religion. |
Contents
Arms Militia and Penal Reform in EighteenthCentury | 32 |
From Coke to Blackstone | 49 |
The American Revolution and the Second Amendment | 55 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
1st Sess 39th Cong adopted American antebellum Aristotle armed populace bear arms Bill of Rights blacks carry arms Cicero cited citizens citizenship Civil Rights Act clause colored common law concealed weapons Congress Const constitutional right convention debate Declaration of Rights deprivation disarm DOCU Dred Scott Emphasis added English federal firearms force Fourteenth Amendment framers freedmen freedom fundamental Gazette guarantee handguns Henry included Independent individual right infringed Justice keep and bear legislation liberty Machiavelli ment military militia Morton Grove nature negro Ninth Amendment opinion oppression organized person pistols Plato political possess arms privileges and immunities prohibition proposed protected provision recognized Reconstruction regulated militia Republican Revolution right to bear right to keep Roman Second Amendment select militia self-defense Senator slavery slaves speech standing army statute supra note sword tion transl tyranny U.S. Constitution U.S. Supreme Court United Virginia