Acknowledgments
We have been writing about the Second Amendment since the day District of Columbia v. Heller was decided. During that time, we have accumulated far too many debts of gratitude to enumerate here. We deeply appreciate the support, encouragement, and disagreements that have shaped our understanding of the Second Amendment in the last decade. This book is a product of those conversations, exchanges, and debates.
The book would not have been possible without the extraordinary help we have received from our friends and colleagues at Duke Law School. We owe special thanks to Dean David Levi, and to the colleagues who have helped guide us. Jamie Boyle, Maggie Lemos, Marin Levy, and Jeff Powell went far beyond the call of duty, reading and commenting on most or all of the manuscript – the structure and argument of the book owe a great deal to their wise counsel. Research librarians Jane Bahnson, Jennifer Behrens, and Cas Laskowski helped us locate and confirm some incredibly hard-to-find sources, from old books and articles to the century-old handwritten gun regulations of Tombstone, Arizona. Besides our friends and colleagues in Durham, we received especially insightful thoughts, comments, and criticisms from Saul Cornell, Mark Frassetto, Eric Ruben, and Adam Skaggs. And of course we are deeply grateful to Alex Tsesis, editor of this series, for shepherding it along.
Our students have been a truly remarkable resource, and some in particular deserve special mention. In the spring of 2017, we taught a research seminar based on an early version of the manuscript, and were fortunate enough to enroll a fantastic set of students: Ali Jessani, Boykin Lucas, Jon Ng, Nicolas Thomson, Emily Taft, Courtney Thomson, Bowen Wang, and Jake Wasserman. They helped us with everything from intra-chapter organization to the identification of case studies. Luke Morgan spent the better part of a summer doing book-related tasks, and we are especially grateful for his hard work and contributions. And as the manuscript neared completion, Rich Hatch, Erin Mack, and Kelsey Smith joined the team to help us check every citation. Marlyn Dail and Leanna Doty managed innumerable administrative tasks, including the final preparation of the manuscript.
Although we've refined the expressions and argumentation through the many revisions of this book, many of the arguments and the supporting sources first found voice in our previous work, some of it coauthored, including the following:
Eric Ruben & Joseph Blocher, From Theory to Doctrine: An Empirical Analysis of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms after Heller, 67 Duke L.J. 1433 (2018)
Darrell A. H. Miller, Institutions and the Second Amendment, 66 Duke L.J. 69 (2016)
Joseph Blocher & Darrell A. H. Miller, What is Gun Control? Direct Burdens, Incidental Burdens, and the Boundaries of the Second Amendment, 83 U. Chi. L. Rev. 297 (2016)
Joseph Blocher & Darrell A. H. Miller, Lethality, Public Carry, and Adequate Alternatives, 53 Harv. J. Leg. 279 (2016)
Darrell A. H. Miller, Second Amendment Traditionalism and Desuetude, 14 Geo. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y L.J. 223 (2016)
Joseph Blocher, Hunting and the Second Amendment, 91 Notre Dame L. Rev. 133 (2015)
Joseph Blocher, Good Cause Requirements for Carrying Guns in Public, 127 Harv. L. Rev. F. 218 (2014)
Darrell A. H. Miller, Peruta, the Home-Bound Second Amendment, and Fractal Originalism, 127 Harv. L. Rev. F. 238 (2014)
Joseph Blocher, Gun Rights Talk, 94 Boston U. L. Rev. 813 (2014)
Darrell A. H. Miller, Text, History, and Tradition: What the Seventh Amendment Can Teach Us About the Second, 122 Yale L.J. 852 (2013)
Joseph Blocher, Firearm Localism, 123 Yale L.J. 82 (2013)
Joseph Blocher, The Right Not to Keep or Bear Arms, 64 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (2012)
Darrell A. H. Miller, Guns, Inc.: Citizens United, McDonald, and the Future of Corporate Constitutional Rights, 86 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 887 (2011)
Darrell A. H. Miller, Retail Rebellion and the Second Amendment, 86 Ind. L.J. 939 (2011)
Joseph Blocher, Categoricalism and Balancing in First and Second Amendment Analysis, 84 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 375 (2009)
Darrell A. H. Miller, Guns as Smut: Defending the Home-Bound Second Amendment, 109 Colum. L. Rev. 1278 (2009)
We gratefully acknowledge those journals and their editors. We also made use of the Duke Repository of Historical Gun Laws, https://law.duke.edu/gunlaws/, an interactive resource for historical materials on gun regulation and rights.
Finally, we acknowledge in advance the scholars, students, lawyers, judges, fellow citizens, and others who will continue to shape the Second Amendment, and from whom we will continue to learn. One of the themes of this book is that the Second Amendment demands – and rewards – the kind of careful, reasoned discussion and debate that constitutional law can, at its best, deliver. We hope this book provides a blueprint for that kind of productive engagement.
