THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

1. THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS Einführung in das US-amerikanisches Recht Referenten: Jessica Hofmann, Nina Stickler, Flavien Degoulet, Ingrid Normand

2. CONTENTS • History • Legal bases • Leading cases • Comparable rules in German law • Quotes • Sources

3. HISTORY

4. 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

5. 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 • 1671Game Act: poorer citizens had been restricted from owning firearms

6. 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

7. 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

8. LEGAL BASES

9. 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?“

10. 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“

11. 2 Interpretations Supporters of Gun control: It refers to a right of the people to arm themselves only in case of communal defense Supporters of guns: Interpreted as preserving an individual right.

12. Gun‘s regulation legislation • The 1911 Sullivan Act in New York State • Federal Gun Control Act of 1968

13. 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)

14. 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.

16. LEADING CASES

17. US vs. Miller (1939) • Presser vs. Ilinois (1886) • US vs. Cruikshank (1876) • Miller vs. Texas (1894) • Lewis vs. US (1980)

18. Term

19. 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."

20. 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'.

21. COMPARATIVE RULES IN GERMANY

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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)

26. SOURCES • Wikipedia • http://www.liberty1st.org/blog/content/binary/rtcmaplg.jpg • Guncite.com • law.cornell.edu • Law.umkc.edu

27. 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

28. Thank You For Your Attention !