Blocher on the Right Not to Keep or Bear Arms

October 29th, 2011

My friend Joe Blocher has posted another interesting article, titled The Right Not to Keep or Bear Arms, that I chatted about with him early in the process (and got a thank you in the acknowledgments section!). Check it out:

Sometimes a constitutional right to do a particular thing is accompanied by a right not to do that thing. The First Amendment, for example, guarantees both the right to speak and the right not to speak. This Article asks whether the Second Amendment should likewise be read to encompass both the right to keep or bear arms for self-defense and the inverse right to protect oneself by avoiding them, and what practical implications, if any, the latter right would have. The Article concludes – albeit with some important qualifications – that a right not to keep or bear arms is implied by what the Supreme Court has called the “core” and “central component” of the Second Amendment: self-defense, especially in the home. Recognizing such a right might call into question the constitutionality of the growing number of “antigun control” laws that make it difficult or illegal for private individuals to avoid having guns in their actual or constructive possession.