Aos meus amigos brasileiros: acompanhei atentamente a eleição no Brasil, inclusive a violação das regras, com a prorrogação da votação por duas horas após o encerramento do pleito. Não percam a esperança; o futuro vai melhorar. Ao longo da história, o pêndulo oscila entre a liberdade e a escravidão.

To my Brazilian friends: I followed the election in Brazil carefully, including the breaking of the rules by extending voting for two hours after the election ended. Do not give up hope, the future will get better. Throughout history, the pendulum swings back and forth between freedom and slavery. ...

"The musket and the rifle were America’s long guns of the Founding period. Today, America’s rifle is the semiautomatic AR-15. Someday, that too will change, but what is timeless is that the people have a right—a preexisting right—to keep and bear arms.

"The right to have arms makes possible the defense of oneself and others from criminal violence, whether committed by individuals or groups. It enables the citizenry to resist foreign aggression and domestic tyranny alike. Like its predecessor muskets, lever-action rifles, and older semiautomatic rifles, the AR-15 has served law-abiding citizens well as an arm for lawful defense, sport, and hunting for over a half-century.

From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, p. 336.
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#americasrifle #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 #2ahistory #firearmshistory #shallnotbeinfringed ...

"From the perspective of what became the Second Amendment, the most important essay was The Federalist No. 46, written by [James] Madison" and published January 29, 1788. It clearly distinguished between the people and both the Federal and State governments. "As for the argument that the federal government would raise a standing army to oppress the people, Madison replied:

" `To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence....Besides the advantage to being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.` "

The very first of the Federalist Papers was published on this day in 1787. These Papers were a series of 85 essays which argued for the ratification of the proposed U.S. Constitution. They were authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. The authors "contended that an armed populace and state resistance, not paper guarantees, would prevent federal usurpation based on military force."

From Halbrook, The Founders` Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, pgs. 182-183.
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#thefederalistpapers #thefounderssecondamendment #2ahistory #onthisdateinhistory #armedpopulace ...

"Tombstone, Territory of Arizona, passed Ordinance No. 9 in 1880 making it `unlawful for any person to carry deadly weapons, concealed or otherwise (except the same be carried openly in sight, and in the hand) within the limits of the City of Tombstone.` It then amended the ordinance in 1881 to make it `unlawful to carry in the hand or upon the person or otherwise any deadly weapon within the limits of said city of Tombstone, without first obtaining a permit in writing.`

"Town marshal Virgil Earp allowed his brothers and friends to violate the law but he enforced it against his enemies. The trouble started when Wyatt Earp pistol-whipped Tom McLaury for not checking in his gun, and before long the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday shot dead three cowboys who refused orders to turn in their guns. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were charged with murder, but the case was dismissed.

"The Tombstone homicides were not exactly an inspiring showcase for bans on carrying firearms. While folks evaded the ordinance by carrying concealed arms, Tombstone was not a violent town; there were only three homicides with firearms in town that year, and the decedents were the cowboys shot by the Earps and Holliday in the name of law enforcement. It could hardly be suggested that such carry bans did not violate the right to bear arms simply because judicial decisions about them are lacking. A poor cowboy riding into town who failed to check his firearm with the marshal in a timely manner, and whose pittance of wages was taken for the fine, would hardly even think of or be in a position to locate and to retain an attorney to appeal to the jurisdiction`s highest court. Civil rights attorneys were hardly in abundance, and high-minded public interest law firms were not to be found in these dusty cow towns.

"One commentator notes of Old West carry bans that `how well these laws were enforced and whether they were effective is difficult to say, and it is all but impossible to know precisely how prevalent they were.` Such laws were of dubious validity once the territories became states and thereafter adopted bills of rights."

From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms, pgs. 256-257. ...

If you`re in the Lexington, Virginia area, I will be speaking at the Washington and Lee University School of Law this coming Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. My topic is “The Second Amendment in 1776 and 2026.”
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#wlulaw #stephenhalbrook #2ahistory #2ndamendmenthistory #secondamendmenttoday ...

"During 1787-88, John Adams published his Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. He approved of Aristotle`s ideal `to place the use of and exercise of arms in the people, because the commonwealth is theirs who hold the arms. . . .` Adams recognized the individual right to use arms for personal protection, but looked askance at the kind of armed protest recently exemplified in Shays` Rebellion: `To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, counties, or districts of a state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can be enjoyed by no man -- it is a dissolution of the government.` "

From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, p. 161 (hardback edition).

Painting: "Escape" by Andrew Knez Jr.
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#johnadams #foundingfather #Aristotle #ShaysRebellion #therighttobeararmshalbrook ...

I recently visited Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.

On June 6, 1944, thousands of American soldiers landed here as part of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. Many never made it off the beach.

Standing on that sand was a powerful reminder of their courage, sacrifice, and the price of freedom.

Photos: The Les Braves sculpture honors the courage of the Allied soldiers who landed here. The nearby Signal Monument commemorates the American servicemen who fought and died during the Normandy landings.
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#OmahaBeachNormandy #omahabeachmemorial #WorldWarIIhistory #LesBraves #SignalMonument ...

"On October 15, I published a post arguing that true `sensitive places` where guns are banned must have armed protection. The same day, a murderer broke into a `gun-free-zone` school in Oregon and began shooting children and teachers. A dad of two girls at the school just happened to be driving by and grabbed his pistol, rushed into the school, and `neutralized` the killer with several shots. He was a concealed pistol licensee."
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"Just last year, Governor Kotek signed S.B. 243, the Community Safety Firearms Act, which her press release said `will help prevent mass shooting events in Oregon.`..."

"As revised by S.B. 243, Oregon law makes it a felony to possess a firearm in a public building, but if the building is a school, it is an affirmative defense that the person has a concealed handgun license, in which case it is a misdemeanor. ORS 166.370(1), (3)(g). However, a district school board `may adopt a policy providing that the affirmative defense … concerning persons licensed to carry a concealed handgun … does not apply to the possession of firearms on the grounds of the schools controlled by the board.` ORS 166.377(1). A board that adopts the policy must `Post a clearly visible sign, at all normal points of entry to the school grounds subject to the policy….` Id.

"The only effect of this policy is to criminalize a concealed handgun licensee from possession of a handgun at a school....

"Only 25 of the 197 school districts in Oregon have adopted this policy....

"It also means that the brave community member who entered the school and ended the carnage would have violated the law, but for a `choice-of-evils` justification defense...."

The above excerpts are from my Second Amendment Roundup blog post, "Saving Lives at Silver Rail Elementary" (10/19/26).

Read the post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/10/19/second-amendment-roundup-saving-lives-at-silver-rail-elementary/

Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com
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#concealedcarry #gunfreezone #oregongunlaws #silverrailelementary #secondamendmentroundup ...