Reality Check: The “Assault Weapon” Fantasy and Second Amendment Jurisprudence
June 26, 2017
Published Paper
Reality Check: The “Assault Weapon” Fantasy and Second Amendment Jurisprudence
Also published in Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy (DC) Fri. July 1, 2016.
From the founding of the Republic until the late twentieth century, rifles and other long guns were not subject to public controversy. At the end of that period, the words “assault weapon” appeared as a derogatory term in efforts to ban semi-automatic rifles. Handguns had previously been the primary target of gun prohibitionists, but the Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller that handguns are commonly possessed by law-abiding persons for lawful persons and are thus protected by the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
