The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms

I love this book and believe it is a required read for all conscience citizens.

This book isn't for everybody. For those to whom it's directed, it's excellent and I highly recommend it. In this review I'll try to help you understand whether this book is for you.

To begin with, even if you're a gun enthusiast, you may not be interested in the political and legal details that influenced the Founders in writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This book delves into those details with enthusiasm (Halbrook is a lawyer, and a good one). Don't buy it if those would leave you cold.

For those who want the details, however, this is an excellent source. Halbrook explains in great depth the growth of the "gun culture" in colonial America, and the efforts of the British government to stifle that culture. Most gun enthusiasts probably know that the American Revolution was triggered by a "gun confiscation" mission ordered by General Gage, which led to fighting at Lexington and Concord. However, Halbrook describes the actions that led up to Lexington and Concord, from 1765 on, including embargoes on shipment of gunpowder to the Colonies, seizure of gunpowder from Colonial powderhouses, and eventually the confiscation of all firearms in Boston.

Halbrook gives only a brief treatment to the conduct of the Revolutionary War itself, except to note the importance of gunpowder smuggled in from the Dutch colony of St. Eustatia. However, the war is not his real focus. His emphasis is on how the Revolutionary War influenced the people who wrote the Constitution.

Halbrook goes into great depth on the debate over whether the Constitution should have a Bill of Rights. On the one side were the Federalists, who argued that a Bill of Rights might eventually become a ceiling over Americans' rights, instead of a floor under them. Why, the Federalists argued, should the Government be forbidden to do certain things which the main body of the Constitution gave it no power to do? The anti-Federalists, who were unhappy with the idea of strong central government in the first place, demanded a Bill of Rights as a price for ratifying the Constitution. Halbrook goes into great depth on these arguments, quoting advocates from both sides.

As it turned out, the Federalists got the Constitution they wanted, with a strong central government, but (supposedly) with only limited powers. The anti-Federalists got the Bill of Rights they wanted, although in retrospect it should be called a Bill of Limitations. Every article in the first ten Amendments is a restriction on the power of the Federal government, not a grant of rights to the citizens ("Congress shall make no law. . ."). One of the great strengths of this book is the description of how it turned out that way: who were the actors, what did they say, and how did they work for what they wanted.

The assumption behind the book, of course, is that the intent of the Founders in writing the Constitution still matters. The Second Amendment, in particular, is not a thing of "emanations from penumbras," to be interpreted by the courts according to "modern conditions," but was the work of people who had to fight for their freedom from tyranny, and who intended that the means for that fight should never be taken away from American citizens. To those for whom that assumption is still valid, the book is an excellent resource on the history and reasoning behind the Bill of Rights, and the Second Amendment in particular.

Excellent book, Mr Holbrook is very knowledgable on the subject matter. It is very educational, and can be hard to read at times, but once you get through all the leagleeze, it is great. One of the best books I've read on this subject, and I would highly recomend it to anybody interested in the second amendment, and what it REALLY stands for.

THE FOUNDERS' SECOND AMENDMENT: ORIGINS OF THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS considers the history of the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms in early America from 1768 to 1826, offering up the first book-length account of these origins based on the Founders' own statements from newspapers, debates, and legislative resolutions. The depth and detail added to source material quotes makes this a fine pick for both college and high school collections strong in American history and politics.