Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy (Aspen Casebook)

Excellent reading for the 2A

As an attorney, I find this treatise to be an indispensable legal resource. Perhaps those seeking a more "Living Constitution" approach (i.e. one that all but eviscerates the right entirely) ought to look elsewhere if they are seeking dogmatic pretense, as opposed to actual historical and legal scholarship.

This book contains the largest compilation of American Firearm history I have encountered. The authors walk through the evolving legal system from the 1700s until the present. They employ a wealth of sources and their documentation is impeccable. The entirety of the work is outstanding.I noticed one review in particular which bemoans the use of "outdated work by gun rights activists . . . at the beginning of the book." It is important to appreciate that when the reviewer utilizes the phrase "outdated work" he is referring to colonial-era documents. Obviously, the beginning of the book should address firearm history during colonial times and then progress through the different eras until reaching the present. It would be patently absurd to ignore the origins of American firearm law. Had the reviewer been intellectually honest, he would have simply stated that politically correct talking points do not surround guns in founding documents.

Many of the later chapters are useful, but the "review" of social science on guns at the beginning of the book falls prey to the temptation of false-balance. Equal time is given to (mostly outdated) work by gun rights activists, and work that challenges those findings is consistently downplayed. This is unfortunate, though ultimately unsurprising given the activist tendencies of a few of the contributors.