to understand the Second Amendment to
the Constitution we should start with
the words of the amendment itself 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 it’s just
one simple short sentence but over the
last thirty years it has become the
subject of passionate advocacy and
intense political controversy throughout
that time we have debated the Second
Amendment to those who are opposed to
more gun control every restriction of
their rights is a violation of the
Second Amendment to those who support
more gun control none of the proposals
or restrictions ever violate the Second
Amendment as a lawyer I understand and
appreciate the need for clarity in the
law if we expect citizens to comply with
the law we must be clear about their
legal rights and responsibilities
unfortunately in the case of the Second
Amendment it’s become shrouded in
controversy and Distortion if we are
ever going to reduce the level of gun
violence in this country
this distortion must first end so how
did we get here
and what is the meaning of the Second
Amendment first a bit of history as the
name implies it was part of the first
ten amendments sometimes referred to as
our Bill of Rights
those other nine amendments however have
never been the subject of the intense
scrutiny and controversy about their
base
purpose and meaning as has the second
amendment what did our founding fathers
really mean when they referred to the
need for a well-regulated militia and
what is a militia anyway is it that
states were allowed to have their own
armies without interference from the
federal government or is it that
citizens were allowed to have guns
without interference from either the
this controversy about the Second
Amendment is a recent phenomenon for the
first 200 years it was a sleepy
provision that was only interest to a
few legal historians in my law school
class in 1976 on constitutional law the
Second Amendment was just a footnote in
the textbook and his best I can remember
we never discussed it in the classroom
you see there were hardly any cases
decided in the 19th or 20th century
about the Second Amendment and those few
that were gave it a very narrow
interpretation for example in 1939 when
organized crime was a serious problem
the Supreme Court ruled that a federal
prohibition on the interstate
transportation of sawed-off shotguns did
not violate the Second Amendment the
court explained that the Second
Amendment was designed to protect state
militia and as state militia were out of
vogue in the 20th century the continued
relevance of the Second Amendment became
highly questionable but all this changed
late in the 20th century starting with
the assassination of Martin Luther King
and Robert Kennedy and the resulting
passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968
gun violence and restriction
guns became a hot political issue the
issue continued as more and more
violence occurred we came as a nation
struggled with such high-profile
tragedies as the shooting of 15 students
and teachers at Columbine High School in
1999 now at about the same time that
this was occurring a little-known
organization the National Rifle
Association was transforming itself from
a sleepy nonprofit charity into a
political powerhouse advocating for the
rights of gun owners for the first
hundred years of the NRA it was focused
almost exclusively on marksmanship
awarding ribbons and prizes to young men
learning to shoot firearms including
what I received at a summer camp in the
1960s when this transformation was
complete the NRA came to the position
that the Second Amendment guaranteed the
absolute right of every American citizen
to have a gun this became the
cornerstone over the last 30 years of
the NRA s advocacy and fundraising at
one point the president of the NRA
Charlton Heston in a speech before the
National Press Club laid down the NRA s
position on the Second Amendment in no
uncertain terms I simply cannot stand
and watch a right guaranteed by the
Constitution of the United States come
apart under attack from those who either
can’t understand it
don’t like the sound of it or find
themselves to philosophically squeamish
to see why it remains the first among
equals because it is the right we turn
to when all else fails
the problem with this is that there was
no support in the law from lawyers from
judges from legal scholars for this new
position the NRA took the NRA had come
up with this position all by itself
without any basis in the law at one
point the former Chief Justice of the
United States Supreme Court the highest
court in the land the Chief Justice
characterized the NRA s position as
follows
one of the greatest pieces of fraud I
repeat the word fraud on the American
public that I have witnessed in my
lifetime this would be enough to end the
story here but we’re far from the end
the NRA continued to advance its extreme
position of the Second Amendment without
any support the issues of gun violence
and gun control became more and more
heated and there were more cases filed
under the Second Amendment seeking to
overturn those few laws on the books
that did restrict gun rights initially
those cases were unsuccessful but
eventually in 2007 they struck gold when
the United States Supreme Court in a
five-to-four decision entitled District
of Columbia vs. Heller struck down a DC
law that prohibited the ownership of
handguns within the District of Columbia
the five-member majority threw out 200
years of legal precedent and ruled for
the first time in our history that the
Second Amendment is an individual right
not a right to protect outdated state
militia initially this looked like a big
win for the NRA this would open the
floodgates to many more successful
Second Amendment
challenges but surprisingly that flood
never came oh there were cases filed
under the Second Amendment after the
Supreme Court’s Heller decision but
almost none of them succeeded you see
the Supreme Court in Heller explained
that that Second Amendment although an
individual right like other individual
rights in the Constitution was subject
to limits and the limitations on the
Second Amendment were significant
essentially what the court said is that
under the Second Amendment only
law-abiding adults not criminals
not minors not the mentally ill have a
right to a gun not any gun of their
choice to be kept in the home not at
work not at school
and not in the car for the self-defense
of those in the home not for hunting not
for target shooting and certainly not
for private vigilantes so with these
restrictions we are now realizing that
the proposals that have been debated in
Congress and state legislatures over the
last few decades do not violate the new
Second Amendment these are not
violations of the courts new Heller era
interpretation of the Second Amendment
it’s almost as if the judiciary hit the
pause button on the Heller decision and
have not used Heller to strike down any
of the gun laws that are designed to
keep us safe in our homes and our
communities here in Maine a disabled
veteran claimed that he had a second
Amendment right to keep a gun in his
Rockland apartment in order to stop
criminals from breaking into his
apartment and stealing his medication
while he watched helplessly when it
became No
that the tenant had a gun the landlord
went to court to evict the tenant for
violating the no gun clause in the
tenants lease despite these sympathetic
facts the Maine Superior Court in a
controversial case in which I
participated in the side of the landlord
ruled that tenants do not have a second
Amendment constitutional right to have
guns in their apartment so if a landlord
wants to have a gun free apartment
building tenants with guns will have to
leave them with a friend or find
someplace else to live it is my hope
that when the limitations on the Second
Amendment are understood the Second
Amendment will no longer be an
impediment to the passage of reasonable
and common-sense gun laws and when that
occurs the people of the United States
through their elected representatives
will be able to join the rest of the
civilized world where guns are carefully
and thoughtfully regulated in order to keep us safe from gun violence thank you
the Constitution we should start with
the words of the amendment itself 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 it’s just
one simple short sentence but over the
last thirty years it has become the
subject of passionate advocacy and
intense political controversy throughout
that time we have debated the Second
Amendment to those who are opposed to
more gun control every restriction of
their rights is a violation of the
Second Amendment to those who support
more gun control none of the proposals
or restrictions ever violate the Second
Amendment as a lawyer I understand and
appreciate the need for clarity in the
law if we expect citizens to comply with
the law we must be clear about their
legal rights and responsibilities
unfortunately in the case of the Second
Amendment it’s become shrouded in
controversy and Distortion if we are
ever going to reduce the level of gun
violence in this country
this distortion must first end so how
did we get here
and what is the meaning of the Second
Amendment first a bit of history as the
name implies it was part of the first
ten amendments sometimes referred to as
our Bill of Rights
those other nine amendments however have
never been the subject of the intense
scrutiny and controversy about their
base
purpose and meaning as has the second
amendment what did our founding fathers
really mean when they referred to the
need for a well-regulated militia and
what is a militia anyway is it that
states were allowed to have their own
armies without interference from the
federal government or is it that
citizens were allowed to have guns
without interference from either the
this controversy about the Second
Amendment is a recent phenomenon for the
first 200 years it was a sleepy
provision that was only interest to a
few legal historians in my law school
class in 1976 on constitutional law the
Second Amendment was just a footnote in
the textbook and his best I can remember
we never discussed it in the classroom
you see there were hardly any cases
decided in the 19th or 20th century
about the Second Amendment and those few
that were gave it a very narrow
interpretation for example in 1939 when
organized crime was a serious problem
the Supreme Court ruled that a federal
prohibition on the interstate
transportation of sawed-off shotguns did
not violate the Second Amendment the
court explained that the Second
Amendment was designed to protect state
militia and as state militia were out of
vogue in the 20th century the continued
relevance of the Second Amendment became
highly questionable but all this changed
late in the 20th century starting with
the assassination of Martin Luther King
and Robert Kennedy and the resulting
passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968
gun violence and restriction
guns became a hot political issue the
issue continued as more and more
violence occurred we came as a nation
struggled with such high-profile
tragedies as the shooting of 15 students
and teachers at Columbine High School in
1999 now at about the same time that
this was occurring a little-known
organization the National Rifle
Association was transforming itself from
a sleepy nonprofit charity into a
political powerhouse advocating for the
rights of gun owners for the first
hundred years of the NRA it was focused
almost exclusively on marksmanship
awarding ribbons and prizes to young men
learning to shoot firearms including
what I received at a summer camp in the
1960s when this transformation was
complete the NRA came to the position
that the Second Amendment guaranteed the
absolute right of every American citizen
to have a gun this became the
cornerstone over the last 30 years of
the NRA s advocacy and fundraising at
one point the president of the NRA
Charlton Heston in a speech before the
National Press Club laid down the NRA s
position on the Second Amendment in no
uncertain terms I simply cannot stand
and watch a right guaranteed by the
Constitution of the United States come
apart under attack from those who either
can’t understand it
don’t like the sound of it or find
themselves to philosophically squeamish
to see why it remains the first among
equals because it is the right we turn
to when all else fails
the problem with this is that there was
no support in the law from lawyers from
judges from legal scholars for this new
position the NRA took the NRA had come
up with this position all by itself
without any basis in the law at one
point the former Chief Justice of the
United States Supreme Court the highest
court in the land the Chief Justice
characterized the NRA s position as
follows
one of the greatest pieces of fraud I
repeat the word fraud on the American
public that I have witnessed in my
lifetime this would be enough to end the
story here but we’re far from the end
the NRA continued to advance its extreme
position of the Second Amendment without
any support the issues of gun violence
and gun control became more and more
heated and there were more cases filed
under the Second Amendment seeking to
overturn those few laws on the books
that did restrict gun rights initially
those cases were unsuccessful but
eventually in 2007 they struck gold when
the United States Supreme Court in a
five-to-four decision entitled District
of Columbia vs. Heller struck down a DC
law that prohibited the ownership of
handguns within the District of Columbia
the five-member majority threw out 200
years of legal precedent and ruled for
the first time in our history that the
Second Amendment is an individual right
not a right to protect outdated state
militia initially this looked like a big
win for the NRA this would open the
floodgates to many more successful
Second Amendment
challenges but surprisingly that flood
never came oh there were cases filed
under the Second Amendment after the
Supreme Court’s Heller decision but
almost none of them succeeded you see
the Supreme Court in Heller explained
that that Second Amendment although an
individual right like other individual
rights in the Constitution was subject
to limits and the limitations on the
Second Amendment were significant
essentially what the court said is that
under the Second Amendment only
law-abiding adults not criminals
not minors not the mentally ill have a
right to a gun not any gun of their
choice to be kept in the home not at
work not at school
and not in the car for the self-defense
of those in the home not for hunting not
for target shooting and certainly not
for private vigilantes so with these
restrictions we are now realizing that
the proposals that have been debated in
Congress and state legislatures over the
last few decades do not violate the new
Second Amendment these are not
violations of the courts new Heller era
interpretation of the Second Amendment
it’s almost as if the judiciary hit the
pause button on the Heller decision and
have not used Heller to strike down any
of the gun laws that are designed to
keep us safe in our homes and our
communities here in Maine a disabled
veteran claimed that he had a second
Amendment right to keep a gun in his
Rockland apartment in order to stop
criminals from breaking into his
apartment and stealing his medication
while he watched helplessly when it
became No
that the tenant had a gun the landlord
went to court to evict the tenant for
violating the no gun clause in the
tenants lease despite these sympathetic
facts the Maine Superior Court in a
controversial case in which I
participated in the side of the landlord
ruled that tenants do not have a second
Amendment constitutional right to have
guns in their apartment so if a landlord
wants to have a gun free apartment
building tenants with guns will have to
leave them with a friend or find
someplace else to live it is my hope
that when the limitations on the Second
Amendment are understood the Second
Amendment will no longer be an
impediment to the passage of reasonable
and common-sense gun laws and when that
occurs the people of the United States
through their elected representatives
will be able to join the rest of the
civilized world where guns are carefully
and thoughtfully regulated in order to keep us safe from gun violence thank you
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