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Friday, April 3, 2015

Question About Black Powder Practice

I am working on a project right now to prove that guns were sold in early America.  The feds now admit that the Second Amendment protects a right to keep arms, but are now arguing that there may not have been a right to sell guns.  For that reason, I am having to prove that guns were privately and commercially transferred.  (Next, proving that water was wet in 1791.)  I am looking at an ad with the phrase "Pistols loaded at short notice."  Was this for people who did not want to load a gun themselves?

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2 comments:

  1. EricApril 3, 2015 at 6:55 PM

    "...but are now arguing that there may not have been a right to sell guns."

    Can you expound on this a bit more? Did Bellesiles land a contract advising the DOJ or something?

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  2. Clayton CramerApril 4, 2015 at 4:42 PM

    http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15711508998696678700&q=U.S.+v.+Hosford&hl=en&as_sdt=200003

    The Government, for its part, argues that the conduct is outside the scope of the Second Amendment based on the plain text that does not refer to the sale of arms and the Fourth Circuit's unpublished decision in United States v. Chafin, 423 F.App'x 342, 344 (4th Cir. 2011), in which it stated that it is aware of no authority "that remotely suggests that, at the time of its ratification, the Second Amendment was understood to protect an individual's right to sell a firearm." (emphasis in original). Defendant criticizes the statement in Chafin as incorrect and cites to a law review article, David B. Kopel, Does the Second Amendment Protect Firearms Commerce?, 127 Harv. L. Rev. F. 230 (Apr. 11, 2014). Neither party has attempted to provide comprehensive evidence of the state of the law at the time of ratification concerning the commercial sale of firearms. Nor has any party explicitly articulated which side bears the burden of persuasion at the first step.

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