The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?

Stephen P. Halbrook

May 2021 · Bombardier Books

About this ebook

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the individual right to keep and bear arms, but courts in states that have extreme gun control restrictions apply tests that balance the right away. This book demonstrates that the right peaceably to carry firearms is a fundamental right recognized by the text of the Second Amendment and is part of our American history and tradition.

Halbrook’s scholarly work is an exhaustive historical treatment of the fundamental, individual right to carry firearms outside of the home. Halbrook traces this right from its origins in England through American colonial times, the American Revolution, the Constitution’s ratification debates, and then through the antebellum and post-bellum periods, including the history surrounding the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

This book is another important contribution by Halbrook to the scholarship concerning the text, history and tradition of the Second Amendment’s right to bear and carry arms.

About the author

Stephen Halbrook is one of the nation’s leading historians on the Second Amendment and has devoted fifty years to studying the right to keep and bear arms. His works have been relied on by the United States Supreme Court, including by Justice Scalia in the Heller decision, and by courts in numerous other cases on the right to bear arms.