San Antonio College Library

"Unlike most books on the second amendment that only cover a single aspect or two of the second amendment, this book covers the entirety of the second amendment. It shows all the documents (colonial letters, state constitutions, court decisions, scholarly interpretations, etc.) so the reader can easily trace the roots, motivations, and context of one of the most important and controversial of our Constitutional rights."--Back cover.

Does allowing people to own or carry guns deter violent crime? Or does it cause more citizens to harm each other? Wherever people happen to fall along the ideological spectrum, their answers are all too often founded upon mere impressionistic and anecdotal evidence. In this direct challenge to conventional wisdom, legal scholar John Lott presents the most rigorously comprehensive data analysis ever done on crime. In this provocative work he comes...

This is an account of efforts to abolish the private possession of firearms in the United States from the point of view of opponents of gun control legislation. Few subjects have sparked as much controversy and emotion in recent years as gun control. The author, a director of the National Rifle Association, asserts that gun control advocates have often used questionable methods to arouse public support for their cause, ranging from innocent misinformation...

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in 2008 that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual's right to bear arms added fuel to the ongoing national debate about guns. Thousands of people die from gun shots every year, but some argue that the prevalence of guns in the United States actually serves to deter crime. Does gun control keep guns away from criminals, or, conversely, does it allow criminals to have a monopoly on gun ownership?...

An objective examination of the Second Amendment, focusing on the intentions of its authors, its evolution from America's beginnings to the present, and the views expressed by the courts. Annotation. Covering legal, political, and historical aspects of the Second Amendment and their implications for the controversy surrounding gun control, this book describes the origins of the right to bear arms, recent controversies, and legal challenges. Following...

"This illuminating study traces the transformation of the right to arms from its inception in English and Colonial American law to today's impassioned gun-control debate. As historian and legal scholar Patrick J. Charles shows, what the right to arms means to Americans, as well as what it legally protects, has changed drastically since its first appearance in the 1689 Declaration of Rights. Armed in America explores how and why the right to arms transformed...

"In vast swathes of America, the sacredness of the Second Amendment has become a political third rail, never to be questioned. Gun rights supporters wear tri-cornered hats, wave the stars and stripes, and ask what would have happened if the revolutionaries had been unarmed when the British were coming. They have had great success in conflating unfettered gun ownership with the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, and all things American, even in an...