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Prof. Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School *

I. Text of the Second Amendment and Related Contemporaneous Provisions II. Calls for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms from State Ratification Conventions III. "The Right of the People" in Other Bill of Rights Provisions IV. Some Other Contemporaneous Constitutional Provisions With a Similar Grammatical Structure V. 18th- and 19th-Century Commentary A. William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765) B. St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries (1803) C. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833) D. Thomas Cooley, General Principles of Constitutional Law (1880) VI. Supreme Court Cases A. United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939) B. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393, 416-17, 449-51 (1857) C. United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 551 (1876) D. Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252, 264-66 (1886) E. Logan v. United States, 144 U.S. 263, 286-87 (1892) F. Miller v. Texas, 153 U.S. 535, 538-39 (1894) G. Dissent in Brown v. Walker, 161 U.S. 591, 635 (1896) (Field, J., dissenting) H. Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 U.S. 275, 280 (1897) I. Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S. 581, 597 (1900) J. Trono v. United States, 199 U.S. 521, 528 (1905) K. Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U.S. 78, 98 (1908) L. United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644 (1929) M. Dissent in Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 78 (1947) (Black, J., dissenting) N. Johnson v. Eisentrager, 339 U.S. 763, 784 (1950) (Jackson, J., for the majority) O. Knapp v. Schweitzer, 357 U.S. 371, 378 n.5 (1958) (Frankfurter, J., for the majority) P. Konigsberg v. State Bar, 366 U.S. 36, 49 & n.10 (1961) (Harlan, J., for the majority) Q. Dissent in Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 149-51 (1972) (Douglas, J., dissenting, joined by Marshall, J.) R. Lewis v. United States, 445 U.S. 55, 65 (1980) S. United States v. Verdugo- Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 265 (1990) T. Casey v. Planned Parenthood, 505 U.S. 833, 848 (1992) (dictum) U. Concurrence in Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 938-939 (1997) (Thomas, J., concurring) V. Dissent in Muscarello v. United States, 524 U.S. 125, 143 (1998) (Ginsburg, J., joined by Rehnquist, C.J., and Scalia and Souter, JJ.) VII. Relevant Statutes A. Militia Act of 1792 B. The currently effective Militia Act C. The Freedmen's Bureau Act (1866) D. The Firearms Owners' Protection Act (1986) VIII. Other Materials IX. State Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms Provisions (Current and Superseded) A. Sorted by state, though including both current and superseded provisions B. Sorted by date, from 1776 to the present

These materials can be useful for discussing how the Second Amendment ought to be interpreted. I intentionally include more materials here than any teacher will likely use, to give people flexibility in picking and choosing.

Second Amendment: 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.

English Bill of Rights: That the subjects which are protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law (1689). 1

Connecticut: Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state (1818). 2

Kentucky: [T]he right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned (1792). 3

Massachusetts: The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence (1780). 4

North Carolina: [T]he people have a right to bear arms, for the defence of the State; and, as standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power (1776). 5

Excerpt from:
Sources on the Second Amendment and Rights to Keep and ...