A Hidden Victory for Gun Rights

A significant gun-rights victory in the U.S. Supreme Court is being interpreted almost exclusively as a free-speech victory.

Guns, Privileges, and Immunities

Randy Barnett in the Wall Street Journal (subscription site) notes that while four of the Supreme Court’s five-justice majority upheld the right to keep and bear arms against the states on Fourteenth Amendment due-process grounds, Justice Clarence Thomas’s “concurring opinion rested solely on the Privileges or Immunities Clause. While agreeing ‘with the Court that the [...]

In case you missed it

The Washington Post had a profile of Tom Palmer in the Sunday paper. He recounts how a gun possibly saved his life when he and a colleague were accosted after dark: “We were what they perceived as a couple of faggots, which was the term they used, walking through their neighborhood,” he said. “And it [...]

Book Reviews – April 2008

• Globalization by Donald J. Boudreaux Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
• Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves
• Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie by Clayton E. Cramer Reviewed by George C. Leef
• The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond by Barry Eichengreen Reviewed by Waldemar Ingdahl

Where’s the Objectivity?

During a recent scandal, William Bennett wrote a book titled The Death of Outrage. The bigger scandal, however, is the death of objectivity, or the ability to evaluate an argument or claim with detachment. Many people look only to see if it supports their agenda. If it does, it’s good; if it doesn’t, it’s bad. [...]

Split Decision

The Second Amendment’s affirmation of the right to keep and bear arms applies to individuals, not collectives. Anyone who can read plain English already knew that. But now we have a U.S. appellate court saying so. That can’t hurt. The October ruling of a three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals grew out [...]

Rights Without Exceptions

Jeff Snyder (jsnyder@ekks.com) is an attorney in New York City and is the “Gun Rights” columnist for American Handgunner magazine. This article is adapted from columns he wrote in the November/December 2000, January/February 2001, and May/June 2001 issues of that magazine. He is the author of Nation of Cowards: Essays on the Ethics of Gun [...]

The Big One?

A case may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court that could legally resolve the dispute over what the Second Amendment means. In a reasonable world no ruling would be required, since these words couldn’t be more straightforward: “A well regulated militia being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the [...]

The Tyranny of Gun Control

People are eternally prone to wishful thinking. It’s usually harmless because pipe dreams aren’t often turned into action in our private lives. When an individual knows he will bear the costs and suffer the consequences of some action, reality quickly intrudes and he asks, “Will this really produce the results I want? What will the [...]