Gun Control and the Constitution; Sources and Explorations on the Second Amendment

Various paginations. Cover has some wear and soiling. Some edge soiling. Robert J. Cottrol (born January 18, 1949) is an American legal scholar and legal historian. Cottrol holds a chair in the George Washington University (GWU) Law School and is also a professor of history and sociology at GWU. He earned his B.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University, and his J.D. from Georgetown Law School. His research concentrates on race relations in U.S. legal history and criminal law contexts. He is the author of five books and dozens of book chapters, law review articles, book reviews, and other published works on slavery, gun control, and others topics. He is also the editor of Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explorations on the Second Amendment. Cottrol supports the use of background checks on firearms purchases, especially to prevent ownership by convicted felons. However, he argues that law-abiding citizens should have ready access to guns for self-defense. "Robert Cottrol has assembled an extraordinary collection of legal and historical material, powerfully illuminating one of our most interesting, and least understood, constitutional rights. At last, the major themes of constitutional law -- broad versus strict construction, the relevance of original intent, liberalism versus republicanism, the centrality of race in America -- are brought to bear on the Second Amendment. With this handy volume, the Second Amendment has finally arrived as a fit and rich topic for serious constitutional scholarship and debate." -- Akhil Reed Amar, Southmayd Professor Yale Law School "Bob Cottrol has compiled a judicious selection of the most important court decisions and law review articles on the Second Amendment. He has been scrupulously even-handed in giving both sides of the debate a fair chance to have their interpretations of the Amendment heard." -- Gary Kleck, The Florida State University.