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A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America First Edition

4.2 out of 5 stars 111

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Americans are deeply divided over the Second Amendment. Some passionately assert that the Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns. Others, that it does no more than protect the right of states to maintain militias. Now, in the first and only comprehensive history of this bitter controversy, Saul Cornell proves conclusively that both sides are wrong.
Cornell, a leading constitutional historian, shows that the Founders understood the right to bear arms as neither an individual nor a collective right, but as a civic right--an obligation citizens owed to the state to arm themselves so that they could participate in a well regulated militia. He shows how the modern "collective right" view of the Second Amendment, the one federal courts have accepted for over a hundred years, owes more to the Anti-Federalists than the Founders. Likewise, the modern "individual right" view emerged only in the nineteenth century. The modern debate, Cornell reveals, has its roots in the nineteenth century, during America's first and now largely forgotten gun violence crisis, when the earliest gun control laws were passed and the first cases on the right to bear arms came before the courts. Equally important, he describes how the gun control battle took on a new urgency during Reconstruction, when Republicans and Democrats clashed over the meaning of the right to bear arms and its connection to the Fourteenth Amendment. When the Democrats defeated the Republicans, it elevated the "collective rights" theory to preeminence and set the terms for constitutional debate over this issue for the next century.
A Well Regulated Militia not only restores the lost meaning of the original Second Amendment, but it provides a clear historical road map that charts how we have arrived at our current impasse over guns. For anyone interested in understanding the great American gun debate, this is a must read.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Impressive and illuminating."--Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic

"This book can help provide much-needed context and background in light of the national debate over gun control, regardless of your personal views on the right to bear arms."--The Vermont Bar Journal

"This intelligent, carefully rendered history of gun policy in the United States...is challenging but essential reading for scholars, specialized undergraduates, and readers interested in law, criminal justice, and public affairs."--Library Journal

"If proof were still needed that the study of the Second Amendment remains a fruitful source of inquiry, Saul Cornell's new book provides it. Crisply written and vigorously argued, A Well-Regulated Militia advances an often hackneyed debate by looking beyond the original concerns of the Revolutionary era. Cornell concisely demonstrates why so many of the contemporary fictions swirling around the meaning of this vexed clause depart from its real history."--Jack Rakove, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Original Meanings

"Saul Cornell provides a wonderful, original treatment of a much discussed subject. Based on a meticulous review of American history, Cornell shows that both sides of the debate over the Second Amendment are mistaken. This is a must-read."--Erwin Chemerinsky, Duke University School of Law

"Jettisoning the rancorous partisanship and historical distortions of both advocates and opponents of gun control, Cornell recovers the lost civic dimension of the constitutional right to bear arms. The point of departure for any future, historically-informed discussion of this most controversial amendment, A Well-Regulated Militia clears the way for fresh and constructive thinking about the rights and responsibilities of gun ownership in America today."--Peter S. Onuf, author of Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood

"With this book Saul Cornell establishes himself as a leading interpreter of the Second Amendment, and teaches us valuable lessons not only about gun control and the militia, but about the nature of American republican government itself."--Stephen Presser, Northwestern University School of Law

"A provocative alternative in the debate over the historical meaning of the Second Amendment. Anyone interested in how the right to bear arms was thought about in the early republic will need to take this book into account."--Keith E. Whittington, author of Constitutional Interpretation

"A Well-Regulated Militia offers a much-needed examination of the varied notions of the right to bear arms that have prevailed at different moments in the history of the United States. Perhaps even more important, Cornell's study challenges the static conception that often dominates public discussion of this particular constitutional provision. By tracing the competing influences of the civic, states'-rights, individual-rights, and collective-rights theories of the role of arms in American society, Cornell reveals the often overlooked republican pairing of rights and duties that defined late-eighteenth-century gun ownership."--H-Net

Book Description

The first comprehensive history of the Gun Control debate, explaining how we arrived at our current impasse

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; First Edition (August 4, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 270 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195341031
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195341034
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 111

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Saul Cornell
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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
111 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2013
Whatever you happen to believe about the original meaning of the Second Amendment is probably, if not altogether wrong, at least not altogether right. This, at least, is Saul Cornell's main contention in A Well Regulated Militia This is not because it is so hard to find out what people thought about the Second Amendment in 1790. It's just that so many people thought so many things that it is not really possible to reconstruct a coherent original understanding of the text. And even if we could, such an understanding would be based on a historical context that simply does not apply to America in the 21st century.

Let's begin with that context. In the 18th century, local militias were kind of a big deal. Not only did most states and communities have them; most adult white males belonged to them, and were required to belong to them, as a condition of exercising other rights of citizenship. At this time, there was no standing army and no real professional police force. If a community wanted protection--from Indians, Redcoats, bad guys or whatever--the local militia had to provide it.

And that's the way we liked it back then. Most people saw standing armies as instruments of tyranny. In Massachusetts and Virginia, the British governors had tried to disband militias, seize people's arms, and bring in professional soldiers (quartered in the homes of citizens) to provide protection. The colonists were not amused.

The Second Amendment grew out of the concern that this sort of thing could happen again (so, too, did the Third Amendment, which forbids the quartering of soldiers in peacetime). When state legislators were petitioning the First Congress about possible amendments for the Bill of Rights, nearly all of them submitted amendments that would guarantee the right to bear arms AND prohibit a standing army during peace time. Federalist, who were unimpressed with the performance of the state militias during the Revolution, managed to fight off the objections to a standing army. To do this, however, they had to guarantee the perpetuity of state militias (and assure that soldiers would not be quartered in homes).

What all of this gives us is a preamble to the Second Amendment that (translated into modern English) reads something like this: "Because a well-trained and well-provisioned militia is the only kind of security force consistent with the principles of a free Republic, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The key here is that serving in a militia was both a civic right and a civic responsibility, like voting or serving on juries. The two clauses in the Second Amendment emphasize both the civic duty ("a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state") and the civil right ("the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.") The right and the duty are inseparable. To the eighteenth-century mind, they could not be otherwise.

Most of the things that we now associate with the Second Amendment were not part of the original understanding but results of various battles and court cases in the nineteenth century. Among the most important of these are:

The Individual Right to Self-Defense, which was recognized as a common-law right during the Founding era but not applied to the Second Amendment until the Jackson era. At that time, however, new State constitutions in Mississippi, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, and (a little bit later), Texas merged the Constitutional right to bear arms with the common-law right to self-defense in statements like: "the right to bear arms in defense of self and state." This gradually became the orthodox interpretation (and on many ways still is). However, during Reconstruction, many Southern States rejected the Individual Rights approach to the Second Amendment in favor of a Collective Rights approach that rejected any individual Constitutional right to bear arms. They did so primarily because freed slaves were demanding the right to exercise their right to bear arms. Nonetheless, the Reconstruction-Era Theory of Collective Rights became the dominate liberal approach to the Second Amendment in the 20th century

The Collective Right of Resistance, or the belief that the right to bear arms gave state or local militias the right to resist federal tyranny. Anti-federalists in the First Congress wanted something like this in the Bill of Rights, but Federalists did not go out of their way to give it to them. According to Cornell, this is first used as a legal argument in the aftermath of Dorr's Rebellion (against the State of Rhode Island) in 1842. The Court, under the direction of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story flatly rejected this argument that any part of the Constitution conveyed a right of rebellion.

The Individual Right of Revolution: The view that the Second Amendment was designed to give individuals (as opposed to state or community militias) the right to resist the tyranny of the state--completely unheard of in the Founding Era--has become something of an article of faith among gun-rights advocates in the 20th century. Cornell does an excellent job tracing this conception back to the 1850s and the abolitionist movement. This view finds expression in the abolitionist writings of Henry Ward Beecher and its fulfillment in the raid of John Brown. It has never been upheld in any court, and most Constitutional scholars believe that it completely reverses the original understanding of the Second Amendment by transforming it from an encouragement of civic virtue to an implement of civic destruction. Nonetheless, according to a recent poll, 65% of Americans believe that this is the purpose of the Second Amendment.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: The Founders clearly recognized the natural right of revolution, which they exercised themselves in the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War. But this emphatically is not the same thing as the Constitutional right to revolution, which many people see--with no support from the Founders--in the Second Amendment today).

So, where do we go from here. A lot of people think that we should base our interpretation of the Second Amendment on the "original intent" of the Founding Fathers. Could we do it? Sure. Here's how:

1. Dismantle all branches of the American military
2. Eliminate police forces
3. Require all male citizens to own military weapons (i.e. eliminate the right NOT to bear arms)
4. Allow government agents to record all weapons owned by citizens, to enter homes to inspect the weapons, and punish people for handling guns incorrectly.
5. Require people to give up their own time every month to engage in unpaid military exercises (this, really, is what "well regulated" means)
6. Require all citizens to bear arms in the defense of the common good, at the discretion of the executive and regardless of their personal beliefs, or face military discipline for insubordination
7. Require everybody to sign a loyalty oath or lose the rights of citizenship, including the right to bear arms

None of these things, of course, is likely to happen. No modern American--liberal or conservative--would tolerate them. What this means, then, is that we are going to have to do what people did throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and interpret the Second Amendment in a way that makes sense for the context that we happen to live in. In his very eloquent final chapter, Saul Cornell recommends that we think about somehow reconnecting the civil right to bear arms with the civic virtue that doing so once entailed. Such an approach would recognize that people have a right to own guns, but that they also have a responsibility to "bear arms" in a way that contributes to, or at least does not detract from, the public good.

I say let's do it.

Michael Austin
Author of 
That's Not What They Meant!: Reclaiming the Founding Fathers from America's Right Wing
61 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2024
An informative and interesting book.
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2013
This book provides a history of the gun control debate, going back to before the ratification of the Constitution. There really is nothing new under the sun. The books value is providing the background on positions (essentially three perspectives) taken today on the subject. It has all been hashed out several times in the past two hundred years. Interestingly the argument of today's opponents of gun control that their sacred 2nd. Amendment rights granted by the founders are being violated is of the most recent origin and really wasn't anywhere near the center of the argument in the late 18th Century. All in all it provides a source of well thought through arguments that if referenced will raise the current debate to a more scholarly tone than the from the gut wrenching, emotional tirades of today. The author does not preach or present a biased partisan view.
8 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2023
I confess to having been confused when I finished reading the opinions in District of Columbia v. Heller. Does the Supreme Court have the power to erase the first thirteen of the twenty-seven words in Amendment II? Was Congress being verbose when amendment II was proposed? Could there be other meaningless words in the Bill of Rights? Now that I've finished Mr. Cornell's book I finally understand. Now I am confident Justice Scalia will take his rightful place in history somewhere between Roger B. Taney and Henry B. Brown. Thank you, Mr. Cornell.
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2018
No matter your stance on gun control and gun rights in America, the bias present throughout this book leaves it an unreliable source for historical events relevant to the Second Amendment. It appears to have motivated the author to conveniently leave out the cultural motivations for various rulings by the Supreme Court, allowing it to appear as if there has historically been a left-leaning slant due to an unspoken desire for gun control. As a side note, the author is fond of disregarding the connotation of a particular word to avoid sounding repetitive, making this an awkward read.
11 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2006
The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." A straight forward enough statement that this book shows has been interpreted in ways that are far from what its original drafters intended. When the amendment was written, the drafters distinguished between the concept of common defense and the concept of self-defense, as established in English Common Law. The amendment was originally written to prevent the newly created federal government from disarming the state militias that were considered the first line of defense against foreign invasions, civil disorder, and usurpation of power by the federal government. At the time, "well regulated militia" meant organized citizen soldiers trained and equipped to provide a common defense. The rights to self-defense and the weapons necessary to that type of defense were left to the discretion of the states. As this book explains with admirable clarity, and using actual case studies, this distinction between common and self-defense has gradually been lost as the U.S. itself has changed over the last two hundred years. Anyone wishing a real understanding of the second amendment and the many unresolved conflicts that it has generated would do well to read this book.
32 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2023
The book arrived undamaged, although it was shipped in an unpadded plastic envelope. The book's condition was accurately described on the website.

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars There seems to be no consistent interpretation of the Amendment and I thought it worthwhile to educate myself and this book seemed like a good place to start
Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2018
As a Canadian, I am often puzzled by the heated debate among Americans with respect to the "Second Amendment". There seems to be no consistent interpretation of the Amendment and I thought it worthwhile to educate myself and this book seemed like a good place to start. I don't want to pontificate to our American neighbours (so I'll keep my opinion to myself) but I would highly recommend this book as being an even-handed look at American history, the role of guns and militia in the colonial/post colonial era and what was in the minds of those who framed the Second Amendment.
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lorne hampel
5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative!
Reviewed in Canada on March 29, 2013
Recommended for those who would like to get a history of the second amendament and why it is so contentious today.