NCJ Number
160179
Date Published
1992
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The right to keep and bear arms is as important and fundamental as the right to free speech; gun-control measures threaten this right; courts and legislatures must ensure that this right is protected.
Abstract
Mankind's oldest right is personal and communal defense. A written constitution was deemed necessary because experience showed that the state cannot always be trusted to exercise power in a reasonable manner. The Second Amendment and its State analogues guarantee that the state would not have a monopoly on arms. Judges know this, but some have a personal dislike of this right. The Constitution is a reminder that judges must be restrained by something more than their own predilections. Legislative bodies also are obligated to defend constitutional rights. The majority of commentators support the individual rights view on the bearing of arms, and the courts are required to reflect this view in their decisions. The courts should declare as unconstitutional all laws that seek to disarm the people. Erosion of rights must be avoided by recognizing that the keeping of arms in the home must be given special protection to preserve personal autonomy. The bearing of arms in a public place is different from keeping arms in the home. Reasonable time, place, and manner regulations may be placed on bearing arms in a public place, such as a court, but the peaceful bearing of arms in a motor vehicle or on a street should not be prohibited. Constitutionally protected arms under the modern view are not limited to those of a militia; they include hand-carried defensive arms and the modern equivalents of arms possessed by colonial militiamen; although semiautomatic firearms are protected, arms of mass destruction used exclusively by the military are not.