Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Status
Accepted
Abstract
When Jim Fleming asked me to participate in this Symposium, and more specifically to be part of the Second Amendment panel, I must confess that I was a bit puzzled. There are many parts of our political and constitutional system that are arguably dysfunctional, meaning that our late-eighteenth century Constitution prevents the achievement of policy results that are desirable in our early-twenty-first century present. I do not see, however, the Second Amendment as one of those constitutional features. As a result, this Essay challenges two assumptions: first, that the Second Amendment historically has provided much of a barrier to a desirable policy result, radical gun control or perhaps more accurately gun prohibition; and second, that such a result is indeed desirable.
GW Paper Series
GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2019-30; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2019-30
SSRN Link
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3403105
Recommended Citation
Cottrol, Robert J., Second Amendment: Not Constitutional Dysfunction, But Necessary Safeguard (2014). Robert J. Cottrol, Second Amendment: Not Constitutional Dysfunction but Necessary Safeguard, 94 B.U. L. Rev. 835 (2014).; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2019-30; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2019-30. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3403105