Gun Legislation
(Topics: Society & Culture | Firearms and Gun Control | Back to Home)
We have to have laws about guns. We of course one we all know from 1791, the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms [1]. But there are plenty more rules from those days which show that early Americans were interested in appropriate regulation as well. These include:
- A 1763 law in New Jersey against setting traps, prohibiting “any loaded Gun in such Manner as that the same shall be intended to go off or discharge itself.” [2]
- A 1786 law in Virginia outlawing armed carry, stating no man shall “ride armed by night nor by day, in fair or markets, or in other places, in terror of the county, upon pain of being arrested and committed to prison.” [3]
- A 1794 Pennsylvania law precisely governing the storage and inspection, stating “all gun-powder manufactured within this state, with intent to sell the same within the city or county of Philadelphia, shall be put in good and tight kegs or casks of twenty-five, fifty, or one hundred pounds neat weight, each made of well seasoned timber, bound together with at least twelve hoops, and having a hole bored in each head, of the diameter of one fourth part of an inch, well stopped with corks, and having the tare weight to each cask marked thereon.” [4]
- A 1795 New Hampshire law requiring most men to use guns as they “shall be enrolled in the militia, and shall in all other respects be considered as liable to do the duties of the militia.” [5]
Today we have a wide swath of gun regulations, mostly stemming from the 1934 National Firearms Act. But the vast majority of government actions (and inaction) on these weapons is done not by law, but by bureaucracy. It is the internal rules and procedures of groups like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that end up having the most day-to-day influence. This is called rulemaking, and it's just about everywhere in the Federal government [6].
This is also where much of the problem is. Instead of debating regulations around firearms in a public forum where lawmakers are accountable to constituents, rules are made by bureaucrats and officers instead of by elected.
But we do need laws. And instead of trying to describe them all at once, the laws should be written based on the issues we are trying to address. With guns there are five:
Big problems must be solved one step a time. And with firearms, understanding what is included in the problem is where to begin.
[1] “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.”
[3] 1786 Va. Acts 35. (Ch. 49, An Act Forbidding and Punishing Affrays).
[4] 1794 Pa. Laws 764, An Act Providing For The Inspection Of Gunpowder chap. 337