Transcript THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS - uni

THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
Einführung in das US-amerikanisches Recht
Referenten: Jessica Hofmann, Nina Stickler, Flavien Degoulet, Ingrid Normand
CONTENTS
1.
History
2.
Legal bases
3.
Leading cases
4.
Comparable rules in German law
5.
Quotes
6.
Sources
HISTORY
Long English and American tradition
England:
• 872 A.D. all English were obliged to privately purchase
weapons
• in 1253 all men –not only free men- were obliged to be
armed
• Henry VII and Henry VIII limited shooting of crossbows
to those with land
• 1514 the ban on crossbows was extended to include
firearms
• after the civil war those who had been judged dangerous
and protestants in Ireland have been disarmed
• 1671 Game Act: poorer citizens had been restricted from
owning firearms
America:
• Hunting and need for defence led to armament
• In 1623 Virginia forbade its colonists to travel unless they
were “well armed”!
• 1658 every household in Virginia had to have a firearm
• 1673 those who were too poor to buy one, were given a
firearm by the government of Virginia
• In Massachusetts not only free men may own firearms
• When England sent more military to the colonies, the
American responded by arming themselves in defence
• Before drafting the bill of rights there were great
discussions whether being armed shall only be allowed for
militia or if it shall be an individual right
• Till today it is controversial whether the Second
Amendment is a right of the state or of the individual citizen
LEGAL BASES
Guns politics in the US addresses 3 questions
„Does the
Constitution
allows federal,
state, or local
regulation of
individual
firearms
ownership?“
„Do
such
laws
effectively
and
materially
reduce
violent
crime?“
„What
regulations
are needed?“
SECOND AMENDMENT
„A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not
be infringed“
2 Interpretations
Supporters
of guns:
Supporters of
Gun control:
Interpreted
as preserving
an individual
right.
It refers to a
right of the
people to arm
themselves
only in case of
communal
defense
Gun‘s regulation legislation
• The 1911 Sullivan Act in New York State
• Federal Gun Control Act of 1968
Most federal gun laws are described in one of the
following:
• National Firearms Act (1934)
• Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act (1968)
• Gun Control Act (1968)
• Firearms Owners‘ Protection Act (1986)
• Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (1993)
But each of the 50 states has ist own constitution
and laws regarding guns.
Some of the States‘ constitutions allow to bear
firearms, and some do not.
LEADING CASES
• US vs. Miller (1939)
• Presser vs. Ilinois (1886)
• US vs. Cruikshank (1876)
• Miller vs. Texas (1894)
• Lewis vs. US (1980)
Term
Original Usage:
"In late-eighteenth-century parlance, bearing arms was
a term of art with an obvious military and legal
connotation. . . . As a review of the Library of Congress's
data base of congressional proceedings in the
revolutionary and early national periods reveals, the
thirty uses of 'bear arms' and 'bearing arms' in bills,
statutes, and debates of the Continental, Confederation,
and United States' Congresses between 1774 and 1821
invariably occur in a context exclusively focused on the
army or the militia."
Modern usage:
In modern usage, the expression "bear arms" is often
considered synonymous with the phrase "have or carry
firearms". Also the term 'arms' often is considered
synonymous with firearms in modern usage. When state
laws and statutes regulate weapons they usually also
define other types of weapons, such as swords, knives,
and other similar objects and use the word 'weapons' as
opposed to the word 'arms'.
COMPARATIVE RULES IN
GERMANY
Comparable rules in German law:
• no comparable rule like the second amendment in
German Law
• reason: different histories of both countries
• In Germany the possession of arms was lowly restricted
until the Weimarer republic
• Only a few thoughts to restrict the fit of arms before the
first World War
• After World War I a lot of the military arms got into
private possession
• On 14.12.1918 the Weimarer republic demanded the
weapons back
• On 30.01.1919 there was restriction to the possession of
arms
• The goal to receive a fully disarm was not received.
• A law for the protection of the republic entered into effect
on 21.07.1922
• 1928 the weapon law was standardised in the “Reichswaffengesetz
of weapon and ammunition”
• The Nazis put a new gun law into effect on 12.4.1938
• After the second World War the Allies had the goal to fully disarm
Germany
• This rule was lifted on 13.01.1951 and the Reichswaffengesetz of
1938 entered into effect again
• In 1952 the Reichswaffengesetz was fully put into effect again
• After the sovereign of Germany a general law was requested
• On 19.09.1972 the new gun law enter into effect and the
Reichswaffengesetz was abolished.
• No renewal in gun law until 2003
QUOTES
• “To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of
the people always possess arms, and be taught alike,
especially when young, how to use them”
(Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental
Congress, initiator of the Declaration of Independence
and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of
Rights)
• “The advantage of being armed … the Americans
possess over the people of all other nations”
(James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in his
Federalist Paper No. 46)
SOURCES
• Wikipedia
• http://www.liberty1st.org/blog/content/binary/rtcmaplg.jpg
• Guncite.com
• law.cornell.edu
• Law.umkc.edu
Sources
• www.answers.com/topic/right-to-bear-arms
• www.polizei-nrw.de/moenchengladbach
• The right to keep and bear arms report of
the subcommittee on the constitution of
the United States Senate, ninety-seventh
congress, February 1982
Thank You
For
Your Attention !