The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Dilemma. The Second Amendment between Constitution ...

182 Pages·2014·2.18 MB·English

Department of Political Science
Master’s Degree in International Relations
Chair of History of the Americas

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Dilemma.
The Second Amendment between Constitution, History and Politics.

SUPERVISOR CANDIDATE
Prof. Gregory Alegi Francesca Greco
ASSISTANT SUPERVISOR Student ID 621072
Prof. Andrea Ungari

ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014
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Smile,
even if there is a tangle in your throat.
Smile,
even if your heart is full of fears.

D.G.
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………...5
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 8
Chapter I - The Origins of the Amendment ................................................................................. 12
1. Starring of the Debate ...................................................................................................... 13
2. Back to the Mother-Country: Britain, Militia and Arms .................................................. 16
3. To have Arms: From duty to right .................................................................................... 19
4. Militia and Arms in the Colonies ..................................................................................... 22
5. Redskins and Blacks ......................................................................................................... 24
6. The Boston turning point .................................................................................................. 28
7. Building the Amendment .................................................................................................. 32
8. The destiny of the militia .................................................................................................. 39
Chapter II - The Amendment in Courts and Codes ...................................................................... 44
1. A difficult comprehension (or Much Ado about…a comma) ............................................ 45
2. The Supreme Court Rulings ............................................................................................. 49
2.1 UNITED STATES v. CRUIKSHANK AND PRESSER v. ILLINOIS .............................. 50
2.2 UNITED STATES v. MILLER AND OTHER 20TH CENTURY CASES ....................... 54
2.3 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER ........................................................................ 58
2.4 MCDONALD v. CHICAGO ............................................................................................ 62
3. States’ Right to Keep and Bear Arms ............................................................................... 64
4. The five Ws of firearms .................................................................................................... 69
5.1 Right to Carry Laws ....................................................................................................... 73
Chapter III - Reds vs. Blues on Gun Rights ................................................................................. 78
1. The Democratic Party ...................................................................................................... 80
1.1 Now is The Time ............................................................................................................ 86
2. The Grand Old Party ....................................................................................................... 91
2.1 James Brady, a Republican against guns. ...................................................................... 97
3. Organizing for Guns ........................................................................................................ 99
3.1 The National Rifle Association .................................................................................... 101
3.2 Mayors Against Illegal Guns ....................................................................................... 105
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Chapter IV - The Dark Side of the Second Amendment ............................................................ 108
1. Guns in Numbers ............................................................................................................ 110
2. A Bloody 21st century ..................................................................................................... 114
3. Sandy Hook Elementary School ..................................................................................... 117
4. Searching for rationale…and scapegoats ...................................................................... 120
5. Where is the problem? ................................................................................................... 122
5.1 Background Checks and Gun Shows ........................................................................... 125
5.2 Keeping firearms at home ............................................................................................ 129
5.3 Assault Weapons: from trenches to houses .................................................................. 133
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 138
Appendix I - Firearms Glossary ................................................................................................. 145
Appendix II - School Shootings in the United States of America (1990-2014) ........................ 151
Appendix III - Firearms Used in the Shootings ......................................................................... 162
Appendix IV - Firearms Regulation in Italy .............................................................................. 167
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 171

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Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the support of those who positively contributed to the drafting of this
thesis. I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my Supervisor, Professor Gregory
Alegi, for his professionalism and constant help he gave me during these months and the
enthusiasm he always put in his teaching. His real interest on the topic further encouraged
me to do my best. It has been a privilege to have the opportunity to work with him.
This journey lasted five years would have not been possible without persons I learnt to call
“friends”. A special thank goes to Federica and Chiara. Together we were able to overcome
the years of the Master’s Degree, helping and supporting each other in every situation. As I
always said, I wish I knew them before.
Some of them deserve a particular mention. These people have come into my heart and will
remain there forever. Michele, Adalberto, Marco and Nanni. They gave me laughs, hugs,
advises, support and – in their own way – affection. Each one of them has been to me
fundamental to cope with these years far from my home. They became part of my life and I
am so glad for that.
Last but definitively the most important acknowledgment is for my family. To Federico, the
newest member of it. For the joy you brought into our home and the smile you returned to all
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of us. He is our salvation... even if having him wandering around in the house made it difficult
for me remain focused on the thesis. Thanks to my sister Rossella that with her whispered
love is able to instill in me the courage I need, because in the silence even the smallest drop
is a waterfall.
To my dad. I thank him for being the person he is. The person I want to be. His strength, his
heart, his kindness, his honesty – especially his honesty.
To my mom, my rock. For the courage that she has - even if she does not know to have it. I
thank her for she never gave up, not even for a moment, for having had the courage to let me
go and for the way in which she always shows me the right direction.
I thank Her. Wish you were here.
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The Second Amendment
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.

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Introduction

On December 14, 2012 in Newtown, CT, something happened that shocked the United
States of America and the world. After having killed his own mother, an armed 20-year-old
boy entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and fatally shot twenty children and six adults
working at the school. It all happened in a rush. Five minutes of hell. Then, Adam Lanza
killed himself. The firearms used in the massacre had been legally purchased by his mother
and were kept at home, accessible to the young boy with mental problems.
Unfortunately, the Newtown massacre is not an isolated episode of madness resulting in
a school shooting in the U.S. Actually, it is just the last and most horrible of a long list of
similar cases. The senseless slaughter of defenseless children in an Elementary school
renewed and gave fresh strength to a fifty-year long debate on gun control and the call for
restrictions over the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Many Americans
wonder what kind of arms the Constitution grants the right to keep and bear and complain
about the effectiveness of Federal control on the purchase of arms.
The Second Amendment contains one of the most disputed rights among those stated in
the 1791 Bill of Rights of the United States of America. It was created to provide citizens of
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independent America the means to defend themselves and their country, instead of letting a
permanent army do it. However, those two lines containing the right were written in such a
way as to create several interpretation problems in following decades.
For 225 years, the Amendment has not had consistent a legal interpretation. For
centuries, people have debated on what could be the real purpose of those words. Is it a right
of the states to possess a militia or of the people to carry arms? Is it a collective or individual
right? Scholars explored the historical background, the lexical meaning, the grammar of the
Amendment in order to come to a solution. But it came only in 2008 when the Supreme Court
of the United States delivered its definitive opinion on the right, ruling that American citizens
have the individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.
Since the late 18th century, guns became part of American culture and tradition. Indeed,
they played an important role in history and continue to shape American values. The victories
of the citizen militia fighting against European usurpations and the triumphs of men on
horseback conquering the Wild West defeating belligerent “redskins” wrote pages in
American history that contributed to transform firearms into cultural symbols. Undeniably,
particularly for gun enthusiasts, arms are tools enabling their owners to express his/her will
for liberty and throw off the yoke of a supposed oppressor – an overseas King or a new central
Government, for example. This is the American conceptualization of the gun created in the
years of revolutions, of pioneer expansion, up to the present. Americans still jealously
preserve this image of the gun. Their link to firearms is shown through the widespread
practices of hunting, collecting, and the high number of shooting ranges all over the country.
Almost everywhere in the United States it is possible to smell the scent of gunpowder.
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