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The Second Amendment
40 posts, newest first (page 1 of 2).
Duck stamps and the Dingell-Johnson Act, conservation the sportsman paid forHunters and anglers asked to be taxed to save wildlife, first with the 1934 duck stamp and then the 1950 Dingell-Johnson Act. The user-pay model and its record. Annie Oakley, the Ohio sharpshooter who wanted every woman to learn to shootAnnie Oakley hunted to feed her family, became the most famous shooter of her age, and urged women to learn firearms. What her life says about self-reliance. Assault weapon, ghost gun, arsenal, how news vocabulary does the arguingSeven words in gun coverage carry a conclusion before any argument starts. Each one's legal meaning, its use in coverage, and a neutral alternative. A thought experiment where the First Amendment is regulated like the SecondLabelled satire: a made-up country regulates speech the way some states regulate guns, to show that no other right is treated like that. Vermont never required a carry permit, and the sky never fellVermont has never required a carry permit, an 1903 ruling confirmed it, and the state stayed safe. The history, and the predictions made at each step. Australia, Britain and Switzerland compared, and why none of them is AmericaGun-control fans cite Australia and Britain, gun-rights fans cite Switzerland. A side-by-side comparison shows why none of the three can be imported here. Why gun makers are not sued for crimes, the 2005 law and the Mexico caseThe 2005 PLCAA bars suits blaming makers for crimes committed with lawfully sold guns. Its exceptions, the municipal suits behind it, and the 9-0 Mexico ruling. How to testify at your statehouse when a gun bill comes up for a hearingA step-by-step guide to testifying on a gun bill: read the text and fiscal note, register, write a three-minute statement, cite Bruen correctly, follow up. What Jewish and Christian teaching says about defending your own lifeThe Judeo-Christian tradition holds that defending the innocent, yourself included, is permitted and sometimes a duty. That is older than any statute on arms. Nine myths about gun shows, private sales and the loophole that is not oneThe gun-show loophole is a rule about who counts as a dealer, not a gap that exists only at gun shows. Nine common claims, tested against the statutes. Lying on Form 4473 is a felony, so why is it so rarely chargedProhibited buyers denied by the federal background check commit a crime yet are rarely prosecuted, which argues for enforcing old laws before writing new ones. Conservatives disagree about red-flag laws, and both sides deserve a hearingRed-flag laws split conservatives: a targeted alternative to gun bans or a due-process hazard. Both cases stated fairly, then the safeguards that decide it. The equalizer, why a firearm matters most to the smallest person in the roomA firearm narrows the strength gap between attacker and victim, so the right to arms is a right of women and the vulnerable, with its duties stated. How often Americans use guns in self-defense and why the estimates differDefensive gun use estimates run from tens of thousands to millions a year; here is why, how to judge any gun statistic, and why even the low figures matter. What the Justice Department's own studies found about the 1994 banJustice Department research found the 1994 assault-weapons ban left effects on gun violence too small to measure reliably, which should shape any revival. The weapons of war argument against the AR-15 fails on its own termsThe weapons of war claim confuses semi-automatic with automatic fire and ignores the common-use test; here is its strongest form, then the answer. After Chevron fell, ATF rules lost the deference they quietly relied onLoper Bright ended judicial deference to agency readings of statutes, and that matters most where an ATF rule can put a citizen in prison. Ninety years of federal gun law in the dates that changed the rulesA dated tour of federal gun law from 1934 to 2022, with a line on why each statute mattered and what the pattern says about how Congress legislates. Justice Stevens's Heller dissent, stated fairly and answered point by pointThe best case against an individual right to arms, from Justice Stevens in Heller, stated fairly and answered with text, history and state constitutions. Black Codes, the freedmen and the Fourteenth Amendment's right to bear armsSouthern states disarmed freed slaves in 1865, and Congress wrote the right to bear arms into the Freedmen's Bureau Act and the Fourteenth Amendment in answer. Bliss, Nunn and the antebellum judges who first read the right to bear armsKentucky in 1822 and Georgia in 1846 held that a legislature may regulate carrying arms but not destroy the right. Heller and Bruen both lean on these cases. Why your state constitution may guard gun rights better than the federal oneYour state has its own arms clause, often broader than the Second Amendment, and some demand strict scrutiny. Here is how it works and where to read it. Printz v. United States and the sheriffs who refused to be drafted by WashingtonTwo sheriffs won a 1997 ruling that Congress cannot order local officers to run federal background checks. Printz is a landmark for federalism more than guns. How a Texas student's gun at school produced the Court's Commerce Clause limitUnited States v. Lopez (1995) held that carrying a gun near a school is not commerce. It was the first real brake on Congress's commerce power in decades.
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