"On June 2, the Fifth Circuit decided United States v. Squire, which posed `a novel question about whether the Second Amendment protects a convicted drug trafficker from being dispossessed of a firearm inside his home based on our Nation`s historical tradition of firearm regulation.` As Senior Judge Edith Brown Clement wrote in the opinion, `our historical tradition supports disarming drug traffickers based on their dangerousness….`"
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"Fifth Circuit precedent recognized § 922(g)(1) to be unconstitutional as applied to some felons, as `[s]imply classifying a crime as a felony does not meet the level of historical rigor required by Bruen and its progeny.` Non-violent felonies such as marijuana possession without evidence of present intoxication were subject to as-applied challenges. As the court wisely wrote, `If Congress could escape Bruen`s reach by simply classifying a crime as a felony, we would be confined to uncritically rubber-stamping class-based determinations, subjecting disarmament laws to a form of rational-basis, government-always-wins, type of review.` Those words are worth their weight in gold."
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"Squire sought to distinguish his situation by the fact that he possessed the handgun at home, but the court found that argument to be `mugged by the reality that our historical laws support his disarmament, even in the special confines of his home.` (I guess `mugged` is a term Squire would readily understand.) As the court concluded, `§ 922(g)(1) as applied to drug traffickers permits arms dispossession based on dangerousness, not location.` That is a narrow holding, as `We do not decide whether the Second Amendment allows Congress to disarm individuals in the home based on convictions lacking a relevantly similar historical analogue to dangerousness, violence, or threats to public order.`"

The above excerpts are from my Second Amendment Roundup blog post, "No Protection for Heroin Trafficker" (6/7/26).

Read the post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/06/07/second-amendment-roundup-no-protection-for-heroin-trafficker/

Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com ...

[ENGLISH BELOW] "Inúmeros estudos documentaram como a ditadura nazista reprimiu seus adversários políticos, judeus e outros `inimigos do Estado`. Por alguma razão, os historiadores não consideraram as leis e medidas nazistas de restrição de posse de armas de fogo como elementos essenciais à criação de uma tirania. O cético pode dizer que uma população armada não faria diferença, mas o regime nazista certamente não agiu a partir desta premissa. Não obstante os fatores históricos ímpares que levaram, por fim, ao Holocausto, a política nazista de proibição da posse de armas de fogo ajudou a consolidar o poder de Hitler na Alemanha e a intensificar a perseguição aos judeus, facilitando as prisões e deportações, prenunciando algumas das mais cruéis medidas adotadas durante a guerra.

"Naqueles dias, tal como hoje, debatia-se sobre o direito dos cidadãos a portar armas de fogo: se deveriam registrar todas as armas junto ao governo ou se o porte de armas de fogo deveria ser proibido a todos, exceto aos militares e à polícia...."

De Halbrook, Hitler e o Desarmamento, págs. 9-10.
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"Countless studies have documented how the Nazi dictatorship repressed its political opponents, Jews, and other `enemies of the state.` For whatever reason, historians have paid no attention to Nazi laws and policies restricting firearms ownership as essential elements in creating tyranny. A skeptic might surmise that a better-armed populace might have made no difference, but the Nazi regime certainly did not act on that premise. While many historically unique factors ultimately led to the Holocaust, Nazi policies prohibiting possession of firearms helped to consolidate Hitler`s power at home, exacerbated persecution of the Jews, aiding their arrest and deportation, and foreshadowed some of the more severe policies undertaken during the war.

"In those days, as now, controversy has raged about whether civilians should have a right to possess firearms at all and, if so, should register with the government any firearms they do possess or whether firearms should be prohibited except to the military and police...."

From Halbrook, Gun Control in the Third Reich, pgs. xv-xvi.

#weaponsban ...

"In an effort to stem the violence and fear [of the late 1960s], officials and legislators in cities and states hit upon the idea of restricting guns. They got encouragement from former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark`s 1970 book Crime in America. Clark had launched his anti-gun campaign while in office in 1968. Handgun ownership, and especially carrying a gun in public, was forbidden for many law-abiding citizens. This policy was and is called `liberal.` Nothing could be further from the truth. The true liberal thinkers--John Locke, Cesare Beccaria, William Blackstone, and Adam Smith--uniformly supported widespread gun ownership and carry for self-defense. The misappropriation of the term `liberal` to describe policies that are actually statist is a public relations triumph of exactly the kind that Orwell warned against." -- Renée Lettow Lerner, Donald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School

From the "Foreword" in Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, p. vii (hardback edition).
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#RenéeLettowLerner #gundebate #crimeinamerica #liberalhistory #therighttobeararmshalbrook ...

Writing in 1787, Thomas Jefferson "stressed the inexorable connection between the right to have and use arms and the right to revolution, as follows: `God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.`"

From Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, pgs. 66-67.

Image: This historic print depicts the Boston Liberty Tree, a famous elm and crucial rallying point for pre-Revolutionary War colonists protesting British rule. During the August 1775 Siege of Boston, British soldiers and Loyalists felled and burned the iconic tree—the Sons of Liberty`s Stamp Act protest site—specifically to destroy this powerful symbol of American resistance.
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#thomasjefferson #treeofliberty #americanliberty #2ahistory #thateverymanbearmed ...

Regarding the above photo: "The federal Assault Weapon Ban of 1994 listed the popular Ruger Mini-14 as not being an `assault weapon,` but excluded the Mini-14 with a folding stock. The Mini-14 shown below had two features that made it an `assault weapon` under the federal definition: a folding stock (which made the rifle easier to store) and extended pistol grip (which made the rifle easier to hold). These features did nothing to make the rifle more powerful: both versions fire exactly the same cartridge, the .223 caliber Remington round."

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, p. 286 (photo caption).

Photo credit: Jim Supica.
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#rugermini14 #assaultweaponban #assaultweapons #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 #1994 ...

During Congressional debates in 1790, "James Jackson of Georgia argued that `the people of America would never consent to be deprived of the privilege of carrying arms. Tho it may prove burdensome to some individuals to be obliged to arm themselves, yet it would not be considered when the advantages were justly estimated.` He noted some positive historical examples:

" `The Swiss cantons owed their emancipation to their militia establishment--The English cities rendered themselves formidable to the Barons, by putting arms into the hands of their militia--and when the militia united with the Barons, they extorted Magna Charta from King John--In France we recently see the same salutary effects from arming the militia--in England, the militia has of late been neglected--the consequence is a standing army....In a Republic every man ought to be a soldier, and be prepared to resist tyranny and usurpation, as well as invasion, and to prevent the greatest of all evils--a standing army.`"

From Halbrook, The Founders` Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, pgs. 301-02.

Image: "Frontiersman at Hannastown" by Randy Steele (randy-steele.artistwebsites.com)
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#2ahistory #thefounderssecondamendment #congressionaldebates #armedmilitia #standingarmy ...

There was a time in American history when playing "cowboys and Indians" with a toy revolver was part of everyday life for young boys and girls. It wasn`t about violence. It was about embodying the frontier spirit: bravery, protecting the innocent, and standing up for what is right.

Photo: July 1950
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#capguns #boysandtoyguns #1950skids #cowboygames #frontierspirit ...

It "was Patrick Henry who, in the Virginia convention, expounded most thoroughly the dual rights to arms and resistance to oppression: `Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.`

"Fearful of the power of Congress over both a standing army and the militia, Henry asked, `Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only defence, the militia, is put into the hands of Congress?` Furthermore, `of what service would militia be to you when, most probably, you will not have a single musket in the state? for, as arms are to be provided by Congress, they may or may not furnish them.`..."

From Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, pgs. 73-74.

Both a lawyer and politician, Patrick Henry was born on this date in 1736. He is probably best known for his impassioned "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech (1775).

Photo: Patrick Henry statue on George Washington monument at Virginia State Capitol (Richmond, VA).
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#patrickhenry #foundingfathers #armedresistance #standingarmy #thateverymanbearmed ...