" `Applying the Text and History Methodology to Looming Second Amendment Battles After Rahimi` was the topic of a session on November 16 at the Federalist Society`s 2024 National Lawyers Convention. You can listen to the remarks [see blog post for link].

"The moderator was Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar, author of the delightful book The People`s Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him. The panel featured three leading voices in the Second Amendment space."

Speaker Mark W. Smith "focused on the text first-history second approach applied by the Supreme Court in Heller and elaborated in Bruen...."

David Thompson "spoke to the need to check historical principles for error in the level of generality at which they are drawn...."

Professor William Merkel "provided a counterpoint to Smith and Thompson, arguing that the Heller was wrongly decided and that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to arms at all...."

The above excerpts are from my Second Amendment Roundup blog post, "The Second Amendment Dialogue at Fed Soc`s National Convention" (11/26/24).

Read the post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste: https://reason.com/volokh/2024/11/26/second-amendment-roundup-the-second-amendment-dialogue-at-fed-socs-national-convention
Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com

Illustration: Young George Washington with Brown Bess.
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#fedsocevents #fedsocnatlconvention #historicalprinciples #supremecourtprecedent #resisttyranny #commonfirearms #individualrighttoarms
#SCOTUS #USvRahimi #nysrpavbruen #DCvHeller #2acases #2acase #2ndamendmentcases #2alaw #2alitigation #stephenhalbrook #secondamendmentroundup #therighttobeararms #guncontrollaws #firearmslaws #2ndamendmentrights #firearmrestrictions #gunregulations #firearmslaws #2arights #therightofthepeople #historyandtradition #firearmspossession ...

Looks like this couple had some good eating. Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo from WV History On View: "Gottfried and Marianne Aegerter with a Turkey, Helvetia, West Virginia." Helvetia was settled by emigrants from Switzerland and many of their descendants still live there.

#turkeyhunting #turkeyhunter #turkeyhuntersofamerica #vintagehuntingphoto #huntingphoto #oldhuntingphoto #vintagegunphoto #oldgunphoto #guncleaning #helvetiawv #successfulhunt #huntingsuccess ...

Thanksgiving Day, celebrated tomorrow here in the United States, has become focused on food and football. At the very first Thanksgiving, that is the 1621 event in Plymouth that became the model for our Thanksgiving holiday, there was plenty of food. But instead of football, the Pilgrims and Indians enjoyed some target shooting with their firearms. Edward Winslow described the celebration in a letter to a friend in England: ". . . amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, . . . "

For Winslow`s entire quote, go to: https://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-history
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#firstthanksgiving #1stthanksgiving #pilgrims #pilgrimsandindians #nativeamericans #thefirstthanksgiving #thanksgiving1621 #thanksgivingfact #edwardwinslow #plimoth #plimothplantation #shooting #shootingmatch #shootingcompetition #excercisedourarms #thanksgivinghistory #earlynewengland #righttobeararms #1621 #massasoit #huntforfood ...

"Carrying arms for defense was seen as both a right and a duty for English settlers in the New World. Under the First Charter of Virginia (1606), subjects were to have `Furniture of Armour, Weapons, Ordinance, Powder, Victual, and all other things, necessary for the said Plantations, and for their Use and Defence there....` There were no restrictions on carrying arms from the time Jamestown was actually settled in 1607 until 1838, when the habitual carrying of a concealed weapon was made subject to a fine."
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"In 1676, Virginia provided `that in going to churches and court in these times of danger, all people be enjoined and required to go armed for their greate[r] security.` Such laws were a double-edged sword for rulers, whose power was threatened by commoners who asserted arms-bearing as a right."

From The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, pgs. 110, 111 (hardback edition).

Illustration: "At the Church Door - A Puritan Thanksgiving" by Will Hicok Low
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#earlyamericancolonies #americancolonies #privatelyownedarms #privatelyownedguns #concealedweapons #concealedcarry #earlygunlaws #armedassemblies #armedcarry #protectyourself #selfdefence #selfdefense #therighttobeararms #therighttobeararmshalbrook #righttokeepandbeararms #righttocarry #righttocarryarms #2ahistory #bearingarms #carryagun #gunowner #keepandbeararms #armedatchurch #virginiahistory #firstcharterofvirginia #concealedcarry #armourandweapons #firearmdefense #firearmsrestrictions #earlyamericanlaw ...

Britain`s 1716 "Disarming Act" banned Scottish Highlanders from having weapons in order "for the more effectual securing of peace of the Highlands". It was ineffective. Another Jacobite rising in 1719 brought another Disarming Act. Again the Scots did not cheer and hand over their weapons and ammunition. The last Jacobite rising was in 1745, at the Battle of Culloden, where the Scottish were terribly defeated by the British. A final Disarming Act followed in 1746 which not only once again attempted to prevent the Highlanders from carrying or using arms, but also banned men and boys from wearing kilts, trews, and plaids.

An excerpt from The Disarming Act, 1746 (19 Geo. II c. 39):

"II. ... That all Persons summoned to deliver up their Arms as aforesaid, who shall, from and after the Time in such Summons prefixed, hide or conceal any Arms, or other warlike Weapons, in any Dwelling-house, Barn, Out-house, Office, or any other House, or in the Fields, or any other Place whatsoever; and all Persons who shall be accessary or privy to the hiding or concealing of such Arms, and shall be thereof convicted by the Oaths of One or more credible Witness or Witnesses, before any One or more of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, Judge Ordinary, or other Person or Persons authorized by His Majesty in Manner above mentioned shall be liable to be fined ...." or imprisoned.

To read more from the 1746 Disarming Act, go to: https://electricscotland.com/webclans/geog/chapter10.htm

Painting: "An Incident in the Rebellion of 1745" by David Morier, depicting the Battle of Culloden.
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#disarmingact #disarmingacts #britishguncontrol #scotlandguncontrol #britainandscotland #battleofculloden #jacobiteuprising #kilthistory #scottishhighlanders #concealedguns #concealedarms #turninyourgun #scottishhistory #britishrule ...

"[T]he two categorical imperatives of the Second Amendment--that a militia of the body of the people is necessary to guarantee a free state and that all the people all of the time (not just when called for organized militia duty) have a right to keep arms--derive from the classical philosophical texts concerning the experiences of ancient Greece and Rome and seventeenth-century England. Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavelli, and the English Whigs provided an armed populace with the philosophical vindication to counter oppression, which found expression in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. In this sense, the people`s right to have their own arms was based on the philosophical and political writings of the greatest intellectuals of the past two thousand years."

From Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, p. 8.

Illustration by David Wright
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#aristotle #Cicero #Machiavelli #philosophers #whigs #2ahistory #righttobeararms #armedpeople #armedpopulace #possessarms #armedcitizen #keepandbeararms #individualrights #thateverymanbearmed #militiaduty #righttokeeparms #classicalphilosophy #ancientGreece #ancientRome #counteroppression #declarationofindpendence #billofrights #philosophicalwritings #politicalwritings ...

"Outright bans on carrying and possession of firearms and other weapons in public places or outside one`s home were declared violative of the right to bear arms in Idaho, Tennessee, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, and Delaware. The pertinent laws prohibited both open and concealed carry only in selected places, such as towns or state parks. Since bans on both open and concealed carry of handguns and other firearms, even in such limited places, are so rare in American history and tradition, most states have no judicial decisions on that issue.

"In Vermont, a local ban on carrying a concealed pistol without a license, where `neither the intent nor purpose of carrying them enters into the essential elements of the offense,` was found to violate the right to bear arms. In Ohio, a state ban on carrying a concealed weapon, to which `reasonable cause` was an affirmative defense, in the context where open carry would also lead to an arrest, was held violative of the right to bear arms; that decision was reversed but the statute was then repealed. In West Virginia, a ban on carrying a weapon `for any purpose without a license or other statutory authorization` was found void. In Wisconsin, a ban on carrying concealed firearms, as applied to one`s business premises, was held violative of the right to bear arms."

From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, pgs. 276-78.
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#gunban #gunbans #armedcarry #concealedcarry #opencarry #americangunlaws #handguncarry #concealedpistol #concealedweapon #concealedfirearm #concealedfirearms #guncontrol #therighttobeararms #righttobeararms #therighttobeararmshalbrook #constitutionalright #2aright #2arights #Idahogunlaws #Tennesseegunlaws #New Mexicogunlaws #Coloradogunlaws #Kansasgunlaws #Oregongunlaws #Delawaregunlaws #Vermontgunlaws #Ohiogunlaws #WestVirginiagunlaws #Wisconsingunlaws ...

New Jersey was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights on this day in 1789. Amazingly, back in those days, "in New Jersey the right and duty to keep and bear arms was recognized as a fact and as a dire necessity."

From Halbrook, The Founders` Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, p. 135.
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#billofrights #usbillofrights #newjerseyhistory #billofrightsratification #colonialhistory #1789 #onthisdayinhistory #onthisdayinhistory #foundingfathers #jamesmadison #georgemason #thefounderssecondamendment #usconstitution #ushistory #foundingfathersofamerica #historybuff #historygeek #2ahistory #constitutionalrights #americanliberty #2ndamend #firearmsrights #righttobeararms #shallnotbeinfringed #keepandbeararms #rightandutyofselfdefense #americanhistory🇺🇸 ...