A Right to Bear Arms: State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees

by Stephen P. Halbrook

Overview

The right to keep and bear arms was considered a fundamental, individual right in the original 14 states (the 13 colonies and Vermont) from the pre-Revolutionary period through the adoption of the federal Bill of Rights in 1791. A Right to Bear Arms is the first book to demonstrate the deprivation of this right as a causal factor to the American Revolution. The book also examines the significance of the right to bear arms in each of the first states and the state influences on the adoption of the Second Amendment to the federal Constitution.

This is the first book ever published on the immediate origins of the right to bear arms in the state and federal bill of rights. The work relies primarily on original sources such as period newspapers, constitutional convention debates, and the writings of the framers of the first state constitutions. The epilogue, Constitutional Conventions in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, accounts for changes in the bills of rights that have affected the issue of the right to bear arms. Considering the bicentennial of the federal Bill of Rights, being celebrated in 1989-1991, and the current gun control controversy, this book is a valuable source to historians, political scientists, law libraries, and special interest groups.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313265396
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/24/1989
Series:	Contributions in Political Science , #24
Pages:	173
Sales rank:	737,561
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	1720L (what's this?)

About the Author

STEPHEN P. HALBROOK, an attorney at law, is a member of the Virginia and D.C. Bars, the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, and several federal appellate court bars. His previous books include: That Every Man Should Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right and Social Philosophy. Halbrook has written articles that appeared in the Jourbanal of Air Law and Commerce, George Mason University Law Review, Vermont Law Review, Law and Contemporary Problems, and various Congressional reports.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Inhabitants of Boston Disarmed
"The Right to Bear Arms" in the State Declarations of Rights
"A Well Regulated Militia" in the State Declarations of Rights
Constitutions Without Bills of Rights
Charters Without Constitutions
Epilogue: Constitutional Conventions in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Selected Bibliography
Index