Second Amendment Gun Control: Republican vs. Democrat Views

Introduction: The Second Amendment in Context

Embedded in the express rights and freedoms of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights is the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment states explicitly the purpose for its existence: "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." The Second Amendment is not, as may be commonly believed, uniquely American. As with many of America's legal institutions, the Second Amendment can be traced to English common law (Eichenwald, 2013). It was included in the Bill of Rights as a safeguard against unexpected government tyranny, to empower the people, and to permit the formation of militias to defend against common enemies.

However, the Second Amendment takes on new meaning in the age of the mass-produced handgun. It has also been interpreted anachronistically. When the Second Amendment was drafted, armament was generally bulky and slow-loading. Advancements in technology have since permitted small semi-automatic weapons to enter the munitions market. Moreover, a black market for weapons has proliferated firearm possession across the United States. Furthermore, the language of the Second Amendment unequivocally advocates a "well regulated militia" — not an individual right to carry a weapon in public under the guise of self-defense.

Considering that altering the Amendment itself is unfeasible, there are two basic points of view regarding the Second Amendment. One is the "collective rights theory," and the other is the "individual right theory." The collective rights theory is generally espoused by Democrats. This point of view interprets the Second Amendment literally and encourages federal controls on firearms. The goal of the collective rights theory is to reduce gun violence while still protecting the rights and freedoms of Americans.

Republicans and Libertarians generally espouse the individual right theory. This view presumes that the Constitution allows for the personal armament of individuals for whatever reason they see fit, and disavows the right of the federal government to restrict gun manufacture, sales, distribution, ownership, and even usage.

The issues surrounding the Second Amendment are divisive, and have become increasingly so over the past few decades. Reasons for the shifts in public consciousness regarding gun control include increased gun violence and the growing influence of the National Rifle Association. Historically, Americans have tacitly supported federal regulation of guns. The first federal gun control law passed in 1934 as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal program. This law imposed taxes on guns and created the first national registry of gun ownership. Its purpose was to combat the proliferation of street-level crime during the gangster era, and it also allowed for the collection of federal revenue on the sale and distribution of guns. From this point, interstate gun sales were recorded and indicted violent criminals were prohibited from purchasing firearms ("History of gun-control legislation," n.d.).

Even earlier, gun control was considered a states' rights issue. In 1876, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Cruikshank that the Second Amendment "applied only to the federal government, leaving the states to regulate weapons as they saw fit" ("Second Amendment," n.d.). Gun control remained a part of American domestic policy throughout the twentieth century, until the 1980s and the Reagan era. It was during this period that the NRA and the Republican Party aligned in unprecedented ways, while the Democratic Party remained traditionally in favor of reasonable gun control measures such as Johnson's Safe Streets Act of 1968.

Republican Stance on the Second Amendment

Overview

Republicans tend to use the individual right theory to support a liberal — meaning loose — interpretation of the Second Amendment. The Republican individual right theory argument is encapsulated as follows: "the federal government should not have the power to infringe the right of the people to keep and bear arms, any more than it should have the power to abridge the freedom of speech or prohibit the free exercise of religion" (Lunn & Winkler, n.d.). The Republican stance has been substantiated in recent Supreme Court cases. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Court "proclaimed that the Second Amendment established an individual right for U.S. citizens to possess firearms" ("Second Amendment," n.d.). That decision essentially struck down a Washington, D.C. handgun ban as "violative of that right" ("Second Amendment," n.d.). In another landmark ruling, McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment substantiates the Second Amendment, overturning a Chicago-wide handgun ban.

Recent History

"For decades now, the N.R.A. and the rest of the gun lobby have had a grip on the Republican Party" (Cassidy, 2015). Central to the Republican Party platform is the right to bear arms in the interest of "self-defense," which the Party also calls a "God-given" right (GOP, 2015). The GOP expressly believes in "the right to obtain and store ammunition without registration," as well as in "enabling Americans to defend their homes and communities" via firearms (GOP, 2015). The GOP also opposes the "improper collection of firearms sales information in the four southern border states" (GOP, 2015). Generally, the Republican Party has become overtly and unabashedly pro-gun in ways that go beyond even the language used in the Second Amendment. As a result, "Republicans own guns more than two-to-one over Democrats" (Hepler, n.d.).

According to a survey by munitions manufacturer Smith & Wesson, the top reason for gun ownership is personal safety and self-defense, outranking hunting, recreation, sport, and target shooting combined (Hepler, n.d.). There is an ingrained belief that Americans are under constant threat from their neighbors, a perception fueled in part by political and media rhetoric. During the Reagan era, pro-gun rhetoric escalated to unprecedented levels. In the golden age of the NRA, then-president Charlton Heston famously declared that the government would have to take his guns from his "cold, dead hands."

The Reagan administration oversaw several laws liberalizing gun ownership, sales, and distribution. For example, the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 "limits the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from inspecting gun dealers more than once a year, with follow-up inspections allowed only if multiple violations are found" ("History of Gun Control Legislation," 2012). Gun control came back into fashion during the Clinton administration, consistent with the Democratic Party platform. Predictably, the Republican administration under George W. Bush oversaw a resurgence of pro-gun legislation, including the 2003 Tiahrt Amendment, which "prohibits law enforcement from publicly releasing data showing where criminals bought their firearms" ("History of Gun Control Legislation," 2012). In 2005, President Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields gun manufacturers from lawsuits.

Republican candidates for the 2016 presidential election largely followed the party line on the Second Amendment. Reactions to school shootings ranged from insulting — as when Ben Carson suggested that the victims' responses "had been inadequate" — to dismissive, as when Jeb Bush simply said, "stuff happens" (Cassidy, 2015). Donald Trump argued that the problem at the Umpqua Community College shooting was that "no one on the scene, apart from the twenty-six-year-old shooter, was armed," and he also opposed a ban on assault weapons (Cassidy, 2015). Marco Rubio appeared to be the most moderate Republican candidate on gun control, supporting "reasonable restrictions" on gun sales and measures to "keep guns out of the hands of felons and the mentally ill" (Cassidy, 2015).

Democratic Stance on the Second Amendment

Overview

The Democratic Party stance is based on the collective rights theory of the Second Amendment and supports various degrees of gun control at the federal level. Under this line of reasoning, "citizens do not have an individual right to possess guns and that local, state, and federal legislative bodies therefore possess the authority to regulate firearms without implicating a constitutional right" ("Second Amendment," n.d.). The 2012 Democratic Party platform stated support for "effective enforcement of existing laws, especially strengthening our background check system" ("Democratic Party on Gun Control," n.d.). The Democratic Party also supports other restrictions on individual gun ownership, such as "reinstating the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole — so that guns do not fall into the hands of those irresponsible, law-breaking few" ("Democratic Party on Gun Control," n.d.).

Recent History

Since Roosevelt's National Firearms Act of 1934, the Democratic Party has supported a more technically conservative interpretation of the Second Amendment — one that favors gun control. President Johnson's Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and Gun Control Act of 1968, for example, became "the primary federal law regulating firearms" ("History of Gun Control Legislation," 2012). The Democratic Party platform is not anti-Second Amendment, but it is grounded in the collective rights theory. That theory has considerable historic precedent: at the Constitutional Convention, the framers ultimately decided that the "federal government should have almost unfettered authority to establish peacetime standing armies and to regulate the militia," reflecting a preference for a federal standing army over a loose coalition of disorganized militias (Lunn & Winkler, n.d.). The Democratic stance rests on the belief that "most Americans do not fear the nation's armed forces and virtually no one thinks that an armed populace could defeat those forces in battle" (Lunn & Winkler, n.d.). The strict reading of the Second Amendment as principally concerned with a "well regulated militia" therefore remains salient for Democrats.

In 1993, Democratic President Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which "mandates background checks of gun buyers in order to prevent sales to people prohibited under the 1968 legislation" ("History of Gun Control Legislation," 2012). The Brady Act was momentous: it created the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), maintained by the FBI. Though vehemently opposed by the NRA and Republicans, the Brady Act was still constrained because "federal law prohibits the creation of a national registry of gun ownership" ("History of Gun Control Legislation," 2012). President Obama repeatedly called for stricter gun laws in the wake of school shootings and accidental deaths related to guns in households. Democratic candidates for the 2016 election, including Hillary Clinton, continued to follow the party line in supporting a strict — ironically conservative — interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Conclusion

The Second Amendment was designed to protect the people from tyranny. While it is true that "governments are prone to use soldiers to oppress the people," arming ever more Americans without meaningful oversight does not serve that purpose (Lund & Winkler, n.d.). The goal of the Second Amendment is to empower citizens. Citizens will be genuinely empowered when they recognize that guns are not like any other tool — that they can escalate otherwise minor conflicts into deadly encounters. A balanced, well-regulated approach to the right to bear arms honors the framers' intentions while protecting American lives.

References

Cassidy, J. (2015). Republicans and gun control: A sad mantra. The New Yorker, October 7, 2015.

"Democratic Party on Gun Control." (n.d.). On the Issues. Retrieved from http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Democratic_Party_Gun_Control.htm

Eichenwald, K. (2013). Let's repeal the Second Amendment. Vanity Fair, January 3, 2013.

Frizell, S. (2015). Why Hillary Clinton thinks gun control can win in 2016. Time, November 6, 2015.

GOP (2015). Republican platform. Retrieved from https://www.gop.com/platform/we-the-people/

Hepler, R. (n.d.). Guess what almost all of the Republican candidates for President own? The Federalist Papers Project.

"Hillary Clinton on Gun Control." (n.d.). On the Issues. Retrieved from http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Hillary_Clinton_Gun_Control.htm

"History of Gun Control Legislation." (2012). The Washington Post, December 22, 2012.

Lund, N., & Winkler, A. (n.d.). The Second Amendment. Constitution Center Interactive Constitution. Retrieved from http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-ii

"Second Amendment." (n.d.). Legal Information Institute. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment