Guns, Bird Feathers, and Overcriminalization: Why Courts Should Take the Second Amendment Seriously

This article addresses the debate on the Second Amendment and what national policy or policies there should be on gun control and gun ownership. Robert J. Cottrol and George A. Moscary review the historical-constitutional debates and the attempt to establish decidedly revisionist accounts of the nature of the American right to arms. Cottrol and Moscary review the jurisprudential debates of the Second Amendment exploring the three eras: post-Civil War, post-National Firearms Act of 1934, and after the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Heller. The article looks critically at how firearms and gun owners have been demonized and the increase in the overcriminalization of gun ownership and possession caused by confusion in various state statutes and laws