Firearms
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed.”
—United States Constitution, Second Amendment
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms for the defense of
themselves and the state shall not be questioned.”
—Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
Article I, Section 21 (fifteen years older than the Second
Amendment
This page is a proud member of the
RKBA Web Ring.
What’s New
Contents
- To the Prospective New Gunowner
- Introduction to Guns and Gun Safety
- Personal Commentary from Chris BeHanna
- A Collection of Firearms-Related Pages
- Feedback
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms has been a topic of extreme controversy in
this century. Curiously, people seldom gave it a second thought prior to
1900, as the keeping and bearing of arms was as commonplace as the wearing
of belts. The sidearm was part of your daily garments, worn out of habit,
and it enforced polite, respectful society, in which crime was deterred by
the fact that guns made it extremely dangerous for criminals to do their
jobs.
Guns have the same use today, but there are those out there who attempt to
dispute their utility, regardless of the fact that the historical record and
reliable criminology show that these people are dead wrong in their assessment.
They see the Second Amendment as an anachronism, a throwback to the 18th
century, in which people saw the amendment as the means by which people would
be secure in their right to throw off tyranny, foreign or domestic, by the
use of privately-owned arms if necessary.
As recently as 1946, citizens used firearms to throw off tyranny in the
United States. In Athens, Tennessee, a group of WWII veterans overthrew the
corrupt political machine that used physical intimidation (including beating
and shooting of voters), ballot box stuffing, and vote count tampering to
stay in power in McMinn County.
You give up your rights at your peril.
A Collection of Firearms-Related Pages
What follows is a list of firearms pages, including both technical information
and political and legal information. This section of the Web is heavily
cross-connected and quite large, so you’re in for a lot of reading if you
want to try to get through it all.
Navigation Index
State and Local
Illinois
Minnesota
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
North Carolina
Virginia
National and Regional
Pro-gun Scholars
Pro-gun Activists
Editorial Pieces
Law Review/Journal Articles
- “In Search of
the Lost Amendment: Challenging Federal Firearms Regulation through the
State’s Right Interpretation of the Second Amendment,”
Gregory Lee Shelton, Florida State University Law Review
- Stephen
Halbrook on the 14th Amendment and RKBA
- “Taking Aim at Gun
Control,”, by Daniel Polsby and Dennis Brennan
- Legal Scholarship
on the Second Amendment, a collection of articles by Amar, Cottrol
& Diamond, Funk, Halbrook, and more!
-
“The Firearms Owners' Protection Act: A Historical and Legal
Perspective” by David T. Hardy (originally published at 17
Cumberland Law Review 585 (1986)). This article—which ran for nearly
a hundred pages and 519 footnoes as printed—outlines the history of
federal firearm laws. Among its other interesting historical points is
original evidence that the firearms manufacturing industry itself promoted
the GCA ’68. The article then discusses the intended meanings of the
1986 amendments to the gun laws, which curtailed abusive enforcement
powers. The article has been cited as authoritative by the U.S. Supreme
Court and two federal Courts of Appeals.
Research
- Taking Aim at
Deceit—Edgar Suter and DIRP totally debunk the idea that home
FFLs lead to gun violence. This article was originally written in
response to a deceitful taxpayer-funded study by the Contra Costa County,
California government to lend support to proposed county gun control
ordinances, but has broader applicability (e.g., in the case of
local zoning boards who wish to block FFL renewals on “public
safety” grounds).
- Violence in
America—Effective Solutions, by Edgar Suter et al (published in
The Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, June, 1995).
Match Schedules
Articles of Interest
Feedback
Please send suggestions and bug reports (e.g., broken or stale links)
to Chris BeHanna.
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©1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 by Chris BeHanna. Last updated 22 February 1999.