Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: gun culture, individual rights interpretation, gun regulations, Second Amendment, Supreme Court, Dick Heller (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This past June, the Supreme Court decided a question at the heart of one of America's most impassioned debates, ruling that individual citizens have the constitutional right to possess guns. With that decision, the District's handgun ban--one of the toughest and most controversial in the nation--was ended. In Gun Control on Trial, journalist Brian Doherty tells the full story behind the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller ruling. With exclusive, behind the scenes access throughout the case, Doherty delved into the issues of this monumental case to provide a compelling look at the inside stories, including: The plaintiffs' fight for the right to protect themselves and their families from violent neighborhoods. The activist lawyers who worked exhaustively to affirm that right. The forces that fought to stop the case, including city officials and the NRA. The story of the Heller case stretches back to long before the decision struck down D.C.'s restrictive gun ban and forward to the future of the political and legal battle over gun control in America. Doherty provides clear, concise explanations of the issues and battles that have driven the gun control debate for decades, detailing how the Heller decision is a new starting point for the gun control debate as it passionately and energetically continues in the years ahead. It's important to note that the Heller decision does not settle every controversy in the gun control debate. It only settles the legal question of whether or not the right to possess weapons under the Second Amendment extends to personal self-defense: it does, writes Doherty. What the Supreme Court decided in Heller may be narrow in its direct and immediate effect; but it's deep in its implications for the relationship between the government and the American people, explains Doherty. It establishes a new shape to the arena in which the legal and political struggle over guns and gun control will be fought. And that fight assuredly continues.

From the Back Cover

"As Brian Doherty so clearly demonstrates in Gun Control on Trial, were it not for the rights guaranteed in the Second Amendment--and reaffirmed, in this inside account, by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller--we would forfeit our individual right to survive."
--NAT HENTOFF
Columnist, Village Voice
Author, Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American

"Brian Doherty's Gun Control on Trial is to the Heller case what Richard Kluger's Simple Justice is to the Brown decision--an essential history made up of equal parts legal theory and personal struggle, presented in page-turning fashion."
--GLENN REYNOLDS
Professor of Law, University of Tennessee
Founder, Instapundit.com

"The Supreme Court's Heller decision wasn't merely a political bombshell, it was an historic advance in the ongoing struggle to restore the first human right: the right to self-defense. Brian Doherty, a tireless intellectual sleuth, not only sheds light on the political and legal questions surrounding gun rights today, he lucidly puts them in their proper historical and philosophical context. This is required reading for those interested in, never mind committed to, the right to self-defense."
--JONAH GOLDBERG
Contributing Editor, National Review
Author, Liberal Fascism

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Cato Institute; Edition Not Stated edition (February 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933995254
• ISBN-13: 978-1933995250
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #532,853 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #30 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Current Events > Gun Control

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comes from a journalist who probes the case and its results, February 13, 2009

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

On June 26, 2008 the Supreme Court addressed the country's debate on the right to bear arms, deciding that the right still applied to individuals - and ending the District's handgun ban. GUN CONTROL ON TRIAL comes from a journalist who probes the case and its results, offering behind-the-scenes insight on the legal, scientific and historical debates and the myths about gun control that have permeated the case. Any high school to college-level collection strong in social issues will find here perfect material for classroom debate.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Weak Book, superficial, March 7, 2009

By	John R. Lott Jr. - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Heller case is an interesting topic. Unfortunately, this book is superficial, though the case's history is more complete than the discussion of the research on guns and crimes. That information on the relationship between guns and crime is extremely thin and not very useful on the central question of gun free zones such as DC. With so much of the Supreme Court case on gun locks, you would think that there would be some mention of the research on the topic. None of the costs of crime in gun free zones. No serious discussion of how crime rates changed in DC after the ban (except for a sentence that could have been taken from one of my op-eds).

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important material crisply delivered., February 24, 2009

By	M. Dillon (Oak Hill, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is short but packed with the important details of the issues, the people, and the trial itself. It is accessible for the layman but not lightweight: a quick, fun read on what was arguably the most important Supreme Court decision of this century. While the author is not shy with his own opinion he is not overbearing or overheated as too much of Second Amendment discourse has been.