New York -(Ammoland.com)- The New York State Bar Association has published a new book focusing on a single phrase in the U.S. Constitution that long has been a source of heated debate: “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
The book, Understanding the Second Amendment, Gun Regulation in America Today and Yesterday, examines the legal framework that governs ownership, possession and use of firearms in the United States.
“Understanding the Second Amendment offers a clear-eyed, fact-based analysis of the case law and historical research,” said New York State Bar Association President David P. Miranda. “We hope the book will bring greater clarity to the legal issues underlying public policy debates about gun regulation.”
Written by attorneys, the book is intended to be a factual resource for the public and policy makers.
In addition, it calls for nonpartisan scientific research into the causes of gun violence and intervention strategies. In recent years, Congress has restricted the ability of federal agencies to conduct research and share information about gun violence.
“Without statistical data about the causes and impacts of gun violence, this nation cannot make informed policy decisions that protect the rights of gun owners while keeping Americans safer,” Miranda said.
The book includes an analysis of current laws relating to gun ownership and a brief history of the Second Amendment. For readers seeking a broad overview on the topic, the book offers a special section, Plain English Summary of Second Amendment Law.
The 127-page book has its origins with the Task Force on Gun Violence created by then-State Bar President Seymour W. James in 2013 after several national tragedies involving firearms. The task force is chaired by David H. Tennant of Rochester and Earamichia Brown of New York City.
The 19 members of the task force, all lawyers, are a diverse group. Some members live in big cities, others in rural areas. Some identify themselves as gun owners, hunters, gun collectors and avid sportsmen. Some support greater restrictions on firearms.
Task force members include an active-duty police officer, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and lawyers in private practice.
“Gun violence has been likened to the rain coming down, and because it is so common it is easy to grow accustomed to it, to accept it,” said Task Force Chairs Tennant and Brown.
“This book is designed to bring the facts of gun violence into sharp relief while examining the Second Amendment and cases construing it, to provide everyone with a solid understanding of the issues and enable informed discussion.”
The book can be downloaded for FREE as an ebook at www.nysba.org/2ndamendment. Hard copies are available at $15 for members of the New York State Bar Association and $25 for non-members.
State Bar President Miranda discusses the work of the Task Force on Gun Violence in a short video that can be viewed at www.nysba.org/videos.
The 74,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest voluntary state bar association in the nation. It was founded in 1876.
At the outset, let’s put aside the argument that the well-regulated militia clause signficantly narrows the scope of the Second Amendment. Although most judges and lawyers endorse that interpretation, the Supreme Court, in its controversial five-to-four decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, rejected that understanding of the text.
NY State Bar has authored a gun rights hit piece…
This is Anti-Second Amendment, if, you consider the amendment an individual right,
It is a 147 page primer featuring:
How Collectivists can influence the courts to promote additional firearms regulations and controls, while arguing against factions holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.
While I am not an attorney, I have read through the book (it isn’t very long) and I did feel there was any significant bias. Granted I disagreed with many of cases described BUT they are reporting those cases and the judicial reasoning behind the rulings. They point out, for example, that First Amendment rights are usually reviewed under intermediate scrutiny and that current Second Amendment cases, with two exceptions that went with strict scrutiny, have also been intermediate scrutiny. As such, the current infringements are considered justified as public safety is considered the overruling argument against repeal of various… Read more »
As an attorney myself, I was appalled to read the Executive Summary of this tract. It is clearly and completely biased in favor of interpreting the Second Amendment to allow almost any kind of law regulating gun and related rights. It reads s if it was written to support Bloomberg and his anti-gun organizations. It ignores or dismisses virtually any and all reasonable contrary arguments or constitutional or legal history. I’m sure it will be cited as an ‘authoritative source’ but it is not at all trustworthy or even fair.
Well said.
That was supposed to be a reply to Leonard above. That’s what I get for trying to do this on my phone.
The New York Bar……yeah, ok
There are 1,000,000 gun owners in New York State who refused to register their guns..
These lawyers/politicians should be disarmed….
999,999,999 I left and took my firearms with me to a really free state AK. I bet many more actually moved , but how many moved in? The politicians should have their security and police escorts removed.
The idea that we “need” studies to identify the causes and motivations behind “gun violence” is ludicrous. How about studies on knife violence, fist violence, hammer and club violence? This is simply another in a long series of baby-steps to normalize the idea of guns being dangerous and unnecessary in today’s society. It helps to condition us to the idea that guns require much study and understanding. A good comparison would be to study baseball, and all home runs hit by players wearing all cotton uniforms. Such a study would be statistically meaningless. Gun violence is only one facet of… Read more »
I agree. Another study, another waste of taxpayer money. There is no such thing as “gun” violence (or hammer violence, baseball bat violence, etc.). There is just violence. The gun, hammer, bat or anything else is just the tool to carry it out. The focus needs to be on why all the violence. Society has created this violence through the breakup of the family, lack of jobs, the you owe me attitudes, sub-standard public education, etc., etc., etc. We, as a nation, address the symptoms and not the causes. You can take all the weapons away, but you can’t stop… Read more »
Wonder how it differs from the other book – by Dana Loesch- HANDS OFF MY GUNS that also goes into the history of the 2A. INTERESTING… SOMEONE MUST COMPARE THE 2 BOOKS AND THE SUMMERIZE the differences.