Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

New Book by Leading Experts Explores Second Amendment’s History and Interpretation

Monday, October 9, 2023

New Book by Leading Experts Explores Second Amendment’s History and Interpretation

In last year’s pivotal case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court held that to be valid under the Second Amendment, laws regulating firearms must be consistent with “this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.” That mandate has now created an urgent need for scholarly, accurate, exhaustively-researched, and – above all – trustworthy chronicles of how firearms have been treated under American law since the Second Amendment was ratified. A new book authored by law professors Robert J. Cottrol and Brannon P. Denning is poised to set the standard for other works in this field to meet. Entitled, To Trust the People with Arms: The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment, it traces the history of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms from the nation’s founding to the present day and is sure to be invaluable for anyone seeking to understand the true story of America’s first freedom.

The book’s authors are both esteemed legal scholars and experts on the Second Amendment.

Prof. Cottrol, the Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law and professor of history and sociology at George Washington University, has published extensively on the history of firearms in America. His work was cited in Justice Clarence Thomas’s decisive concurring opinion in McDonald v. Chicago, which dispelled the false claim that the Second Amendment has no application to the actions of states or localities. Justice Thomas, of course, would go on to author the majority opinion in Bruen itself. Prof. Cottrol has in particular brought attention to the complicated and often misunderstood experience of African Americans with firearms and firearm regulation in the United States. This insight is particularly relevant as more and more people of color embrace the Second Amendment, and continue to suffer the ill-effects of overreaching gun control laws, in the present day. 

Brannon P. Denning is the Starnes Professor of Law at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He co-authored (with Andrew J. McClurg) the 2016 casebook Guns and the Law: Cases, Materials, and Explanation. This reference was specifically aimed at educating law students on firearms regulation, the Second Amendment, and the law of self-defense. Prof. Denning has also published broadly on other constitutional issues, including the Commerce Clause (the source of most federal gun control) and the constitutional amendment process.

To Trust the People with Arms has already received acclaim from diverse voices in today’s gun control debate. Prof. Joyce Lee Malcom, a pioneering Second Amendment scholar and author in her own right, called the book “exactly what we need right now.” She described it as “a scholarly, temperate and reliable guide for judges, lawyers, scholars and students alike,” which provides “the clarification so often lost in passionate arguments over the role of firearms in modern America.” Even Prof. Adam Winkler, often quoted by anti-gun media sources advocating for gun control, acknowledged the authors as “[t]wo of the leading Second Amendment scholars in the nation” who brought “deep expertise to this rich, detailed history of the right to bear arms.”

To Trust the People with Arms: The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment is published by the University Press of Kansas. It is available in hardcover directly from the publisher, as well as from Amazon, or in ebook format wherever fine ebooks are sold.

TRENDING NOW
North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Yesterday, in Butler v. Bondi, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority by issuing its 2024 Final Rule expanding ...

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Americans know the President Donald Trump-led Republican Party has a better plan than their Democratic Party opponents on crime and gun control.

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Friday, October 3, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Bondi, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision upholding the Federal ...

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

Last Monday, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce published a final rule that reversed a crackdown on the commercial export of firearms from the U.S. to other countries.

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

There’s an old saying that rings especially true to Second Amendment supporters: If you don’t read the news, you’re uninformed.

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

News  

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

With the free speech debate recently co-opted by one TV host’s use of false and incendiary remarks about his political opponents, it might have been easy to miss another important First Amendment story last week. 

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Friday, October 3, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s law forbidding carry on private property open to the public (such as restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores) ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.