Protests, Insurrection, and the Second Amendment

Gun regulation not only prevents physical harm — it protects citizens’ equal freedom to speak, learn, pray, shop, and vote without fear.

Forging anti-racist gun policy requires decentering the criminal justice system as the go-to institution for solving gun violence.

The pro-gun imaginary narrative, when it comes to domestic violence, does not comport with the reality of intimate partner abuse and risks divorcing law and policy from the true needs of society.

The scope of gun regulation under the original understanding of the police power has not drawn much attention from courts thus far but should figure in any future originalist account of the Second Amendment.

In light of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the time has come to reject the specious mask of zeal for unlimited gun rights that has become a mainstay of too many American politicians.

Rising violence by political “insiders” poses a threat to our democratic institutions in ways that Supreme Court precedents on the First and Second Amendments, developed in response to risks from fringe actors, do not adequately respond.

The works of Machiavelli have proven fertile ground for those on the right who entangle the duties of citizenship with the possession of arms, but also those on the left who seek radical democratic change.

The tumultuous events of 2020 and the role of guns and gun rights supporters in them portend an uncertain political future for the NRA and for the gun rights debate more broadly.

Understanding resistance to firearms restrictions requires unmasking a pernicious armed rebellion narrative that masquerades as the “original intent” of the American framers.

Contrary to widespread mythology about the right to keep and bear arms, private militias are not authorized under federal or state law, are not protected by the Second Amendment, and are unlawful in every state.

The moral and historical foundations of the insurrectionary Second Amendment must reckon with this paradox: African Americans, the Americans with the most right to resist tyranny, forswore violence as a tool of political change in favor of peaceful political protest.

Violent threats to the stability and sustainability of the American republic will persist until the country confronts the economic inequality that lies at the heart of American republicanism.

With the Supreme Court preparing to hear the next big Second Amendment case, the gun rights movement’s role in equating “arms” and guns — which reflects neither law nor weapons practices — merits consideration.