Far More Material Than I Would Have Guessed

Far More Material Than I Would Have Guessed

Those of you who live in California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and a few other places where there is no right to keep and bear arms--good news. I'm doing research in support of the lawsuits against Chicago and San Francisco to get the Second Amendment applied to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment's "privileges and immunities" clause. Right now, I'm digging through newspapers and books of the 1830-1870 period--and the volume of stuff that explicitly recognizes that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms is just staggering.

What's even more entertaining is the astonishing diversity of those saying this. Democrats (although they aren't quite prepared to include black people, for obvious reasons--just like today!) Republican National Platforms. Abolitionists are saying it. Apologists for the slave holders are saying it. Black newspapers are saying it. White newspapers are saying it.

I remember telling someone that proving that the Second Amendment protects an individual right was a little struggle, but we did manage to find the evidence. It was scarce, but present. (And their side couldn't find anything but hopes and dreams.)

Proving that the Second Amendment was understood to protect an individual right in the period when the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment is, by comparison, child's play. The volume of evidence is vastly larger, and considerably more explicit.

The Brady Campaign should start figuring out what stupid idea to promote next--because they are in a world of trouble with what I am finding.