Gun Control - the use of firearms through American history, and the modern movement toward gun control

Current Events, Sept 24, 1999

Court Battle Loons Over Right to Bear Arms

BACKGROUND

America today has a love-hate relationship with guns, but in the beginning, it was mostly love.

The first European settlers found a wild continent that abounded with edible game. Guns allowed settlers to kill enough game to survive in the wilderness and to push further into lands further west. Familiarity with the hunting rifle became an essential survival skill on the American frontier. Young boys were encouraged to become expert marksmen.

"A well grown boy," wrote the Reverend Joseph Dodridge, who lived on the Virginia frontier, "at the age of 12 or 13 years, was furnished with a small rifle and shot-pouch. He then became a fort soldier, and had his port-hold assigned to him. Hunting squirrels, turkeys, and raccoons soon made him expert in the use of his gun."

Revolutionary War

Familiarity with the rifle helped the rough-and-tumble rebel Colonists defeat the British regular troops during the Revolutionary War (1776-1783).

The American frontiersmen also used the Pennsylvania rifle, developed by German immigrants. As a weapon, it was far superior to "Brown Bess," the regulation military musket used by British troops. The Pennsylvania rifle was more quickly loaded and more accurate. It struck such terror into British troops that George Washington asked that as many of his troops as possible be dressed in frontiersman's hunting shirts. The British thought every man thus dressed was an expert marksman.

After the Revolution

After the Revolution, guns became an even more important part of American life with the push westward toward the Pacific. Western heroes, such as Wild Bill Hickock, inseparable from their guns, especially the new Colt revolver, or "six-shooter," the handgun that, according Colt, "won the West.".

Guns tamed the frontier and brought "civilization" to millions of acres of land from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Often, "frontier justice" was obtained by the man who had the fastest draw--or the best gun. But that was 100 years ago. Some argue that today, America's gun culture has outlived its usefulness. Others disagree.

DALLAS -- If you think words aren't very important, consider the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Second Amendment says, "A well related Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The amendment is composed of simple words, but what a battle those words have generated! More than 200 years after the Second Amendment was written, its meaning remains the subject of an intense debate--more so today than ever before.

What Does It Mean?

Does the Second Amendment mean an individual has the right to own a gun, as an individual has the right to freedom of speech? Or does it mean that Americans have the fight to defend themselves as a group through state militias such as the National Guard?

Gun control advocates--those who favor laws limiting private ownership of guns--say the Second Amendment clearly applies only to militias, or collective defense. Gun control opponents say no, the amendment clearly establishes the right of individual gun ownership. Both sides say, "Look at the words."

Turning to the Courts

In interpreting laws, Americans have traditionally turned to the courts. And courts have consistently interpreted the Second Amendment as meaning militias and therefore supporting gun control laws. (See Sidelights.)

Now a court case in Texas has thrown those judicial interpretations into confusion. In April, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas, Samuel R. Cummings, ruled in the case of U.S. v. Emerson that the Second Amendment does indeed grant individuals the right to own guns. It is the first time that a federal court has ruled in favor of individual gun ownership for law-abiding citizens.

U.S. v. Emerson began last August when Sacha Emerson, 26, of San Angelo, Texas, filed for divorce. The local court placed a restraining order on her husband, Timothy Joe Emerson, 41, after she complained that he had threatened to kill her boyfriend.

Timothy Emerson owned a gun, which made him a lawbreaker under a Texas law that bars people under restraining orders in domestic disputes from owning guns.

Emerson was indicted, but the case never got to court. Judge Cummings found the law unconstitutional, arguing that it violated the Second Amendment.

In his decision, Cummings said, "The rights of the Second Amendment should be as zealously guarded as the other individual liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights."

Now Judge Cummings's decision is under appeal to a higher court--the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. That means that Federal prosecutors and other legal experts have asked the court to overrule, or reverse, the decision.

A Serious Matter

Both sides are taking the appeal very seriously. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Rifle Association (NRA), a politically influential organization that supports gun ownership, plan to file briefs (legal arguments) supporting the judge's decision favoring an individual right of gun ownership. A group of 45 law professors and legal historians has filed a brief arguing against the judge's decision.