Firearms Law

and the Second Amendment:

Regulation, Rights,

and Policy

 First Edition

Aspen Publishers, published March 8, 2012. The first law school textbook on the Second Amendment. Aspen Publishers web page for the book. Professors can order free review copies there. Buy it from Amazon.com in hardcover or Kindle format.  Discounted price!

Preview the book Summary Table of Contents Full Table of Contents Preface

About the authors

Nicholas J. Johnson

David B. Kopel

George A. Mocsary

Michael P. O'Shea

Podcasts

Federalist Society Faculty Division podcast. Authors Johnson and O'Shea discussed the book with UCLA's Adam Winkler. 34 minutes.

Chapter podcasts

In this series, co-author David Kopel discusses each chapter with Justin Longo of iVoices.org. The questions are from the perspective of a intelligent lay person who is interested in firearms law and policy. The textbook itself tends to be neutral on most controversial questions; that is, the readings speak for themselves, while the printed Questions that follow the reading attempt to engage the reader with important issues, rather than directing the reader to a "correct" answer. In the podcast series, we go further, and Kopel provides some answers from his own perspective. These should be considered as one way to interpret the materials, rather than as the only possible answers.

Chapter 1.  A Brief Introduction to Firearms and their Regulation. MP3.

Chapter 2. Antecedents of the Second Amendment: From Confucius to the British Whigs. MP3.

Chapter 3. The Colonies and the Revolution. MP3.

Chapter 4. The new Constitution and the Second Amendment. MP3.

Chapter 5. The Early Republic, and the Antebellum Era. MP3.

Chapter 6. Reconstruction and the late 19th Century. MP3.

Student research tools (coming soon)

Bibliography of research sources

Topic ideas for student research papers

Student papers. Law student research papers published on this website