Eugene Volokh, the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, teaches free speech law, criminal law, religious freedom law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy. He clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
His compilation of state constitutional guarantees of gun rights is interesting reading – particularly Pennsylvania’s very clear language dating from 1776 and then 1790.
How would the two Democrat candidates dance around this? The following is a portion state constitutional gun provisions arranged by date.
1776 North Carolina: That the people have a right to bear arms, for the defence of the State; and, as standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.
1776 Pennsylvania: That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the state; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination, to, and governed by, the civil power.
1777 Vermont: That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the State — and as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military should be kept under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power.
1780 Massachusetts: The people have a right to keep and to bear arms for the common defence. And as, in time of peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without the consent of the legislature; and the military power shall always be held in an exact subordination to the civil authority, and be governed by it.
1790 Pennsylvania: The right of the citizens to bear arms in defence of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.
Click here to see Volokh’s State Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms Provisions, by Date
