Repeal the Second Amendment: The Case for a Safer America

by Allan J. Lichtman

Overview

A radical case for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment as the only way to control gun violence in America

There's an average of one mass shooting per day in the United States. Given the ineffectiveness of the gun control lobby, it's time for a strategy with spine. In Repeal the Second Amendment, Allan J. Lichtman has written the first book that uses history, legal theory and up-to-the-minute data to make a compelling case for the amendment’s repeal in order to create a clear road to sensible gun control in the US.

Repeal the Second Amendment explores both the true history and current interpretation of the Second Amendment to expose the NRA’s blatant historical manipulations and irresponsible fake news releases. Lichtman looks at the history of firearms and gun regulations from colonial times to the present to explain how a historically forgotten sentence in the Constitution has become a flash point of recent politics that benefits only the gun industry, their lobbyists, and the politicians on their payroll. He probes court decisions and the effective lobbying and public relations strategies of the gun lobby as well as the ineffectiveness of the gun control movement for lessons in doing better.

What emerges is a clear and cogent plan—repeal and replace the Second Amendment without taking guns away from anyone who has them now—to make the US a safer place. It's time to Repeal the Second Amendment, and Allan Lichtman is the man to bring this radical plan to America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250244406
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/28/2020
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,101,900
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 5.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Allan J. Lichtman is Distinguished Professor of History at American University and the author of many acclaimed books on U.S. political history, including White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, FDR and the Jews (with Richard Breitman), and The Case for Impeachment. He is regularly sought out by the media for his authoritative views on voting and elections.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Book That Must Be Written 1

1 The Toll of Gun Violence 15

2 Guns in Early America 28

3 Adoption of the Second Amendment 42

4 A Century of Gun Controls 60

5 Enter the Federal Government 74

6 Assassinations and Debates over Gun Control 87

7 The NRA Reinvents the Second Amendment 113

8 The Original Sin of Justice Scalia's Originalism: D.C. v. Heller 137

9 Iron Triangle: The Gun Lobby, Gun Industry, and Politicians 147

10 Follow the Money 165

11 Debunking the Gun Lobby's Case for Firearms Self-Defense 179

12 "More Guns, Less Crime," Another Gun Lobby Myth 202

13 A Path to Repeal 220

14 After Repeal: Gun Control Reforms for a Safer America 234

Acknowledgments 259

Notes 261

Index 313

Editorial Reviews

11/11/2019

In this deeply researched polemic, American University history professor Lichtman (The Case for Impeachment) argues that the Second Amendment has been “hijacked” by the National Rifle Association and “can and must” be repealed in order to solve America’s gun violence problem. Lichtman chronicles the gun lobby’s decades-long campaign, culminating in the Supreme Court’s 2008 D.C. v. Heller decision, to redefine the amendment’s “collective” right to bear arms as an “individual” and “virtually unlimited” right, and debunks claims that private gun ownership leads to less crime, that firearms are effective for self-defense, and that gun control measures don’t reduce gun violence. A repeal amendment would need to be proposed by two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress and ratified by three-quarters of the states—a “difficult” task, Lichtman writes, but one that has been achieved before, with the end of Prohibition in 1933. The campaign to repeal the 18th Amendment, according to Lichtman, created a road map gun control advocates can follow by organizing “single-issue group” dedicated to repeal and recruiting former gun rights advocates to join the cause, among other tactics. Lichtman’s damning portrait of the NRA persuades, but his “path to repeal” feels vague and overly optimistic. However, this call to action will resonate with gun control advocates. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Repeal the Second Amendment:

"Lichtman’s damning portrait of the NRA persuades . . . . This call to action will resonate with gun control advocates."
—Publishers Weekly

“A thoroughgoing survey of that most troublesome of constitutional matters. Useful ammunition for an argument on gun rights.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for The Embattled Vote:

“[An] important book… [Lichtman] uses history to contextualize the fix we’re in today... With luck, this fine history might just help to fan the flame.” —New York Times Book Review

Praise for The Case for Impeachment:

"It is still striking to see the full argument unfold and realize that you don’t have to be a zealot to imagine some version of it happening…Lies. Abuse of power. Treason. Crimes against humanity. Martial law. Lichtman throws everything Trump’s way." —Washington Post

“Liberal catnip.” —Joe Scarborough, Morning Joe

From the Publisher

2019-10-14
A thoroughgoing survey of that most troublesome of constitutional matters.

Recent court decisions, from the lower municipal to the highest in the land, have held the Second Amendment right of gun ownership to be sacrosanct, never mind that pesky "well-regulated militia" bit. The National Rifle Association, for its part, has argued that the Second Amendment is the most important in the Bill of Rights, protecting all others. But, writes Lichtman (History/American Univ.; The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present, 2018, etc.), Founding Father James Madison didn't see it that way: He held instead that "the ‘essential rights' are trial by jury and freedom of conscience, speech, and the press." Past interpretation of the amendment did in fact connect it to the militia, subsequently replaced by the National Guard and therefore, in theory, rendered moot. Instead, as Lichtman enumerates in just one statistic, nearly 24,000 Americans die of gun suicide, something that rarely happens in other developed nations with strict firearms codes. As he notes, our constitutional right to keep arms is shared only with Guatemala, "whose gun murder rate is the third highest of some 195 countries worldwide"). The NRA was once a responsible hunters' organization. Since the 1960s, not coincidentally the civil rights era, it has become a lobbying firm that protects arms manufacturers' interests by battling any efforts at gun control—and not just here, but also in places such as Canada and Brazil, the latter of which "has by far the most firearms homicides and deaths of any country in the world." As for Americans, we are far more likely to be murdered by gun than a resident of any of the G7 nations—more than 20 times per capita, in fact, adding Australia to those nations. What can be done? Short of repeal outright, Lichtman sensibly suggests strengthening background checks, limiting gun sales, and holding gun manufacturers legally accountable for the nefarious uses of their products.

Useful ammunition for an argument on gun rights at the bar or dinner table.

Kirkus Reviews