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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.

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California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

Monday, October 13, 2025

California: Governor Newsom Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law

For someone who has claimed to be"...deeply mindful and respectful of the Second Amendment and people’s Constitutional rights,” Governor Gavin Newsom has once again proven that actions speak louder than words.

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

Firearm Prohibition Advocates Mute on Jay Jones “Two Bullets to the Head” Scandal

Democrat Jay Jones, candidate for Virginia attorney general, still has not suspended his campaign, even as pressure mounts over disclosures that should disqualify, to put it mildly, any individual from serving as the chief law ...

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). 

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

News  

Monday, October 13, 2025

FBI Persists in Underreporting Armed Citizen Defensive Gun Use

Three years ago, Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), writing for RealClearInvestigations, described how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was vastly undercounting, “by an order of more than three the number of instances in ...

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Monday, October 13, 2025

NRA Files Lawsuit Challenging California’s Glock Ban

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons & Gear, and two NRA members—filed a lawsuit challenging California’s Glock ban.

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Another Lawsuit Challenging the National Firearms Act

Today, the National Rifle Association—along with the American Suppressor Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Second Amendment Foundation—announced the filing of another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Rehearing En Banc Sought in NRA-Supported Challenge to New Jersey’s Carry Restrictions

Today, the National Rifle Association announced the filing of a petition for rehearing en banc in Siegel v. Platkin, a challenge to New Jersey’s carry restrictions.

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

US Virgin Islands: Sweeping Gun Control Measures Advance

The 36th Legislature of the US Virgin Islands is continuing to advance sweeping gun control measures through the legislative process.

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Thursday, October 9, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Hear Challenge to Ban on Firearms Possession by Nonviolent Felons

Today, the National Rifle Association, along with the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and FPC Action Foundation, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the federal lifetime prohibition on ...

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.

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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.