Second Amendment: References & Edit History

The Roman and Florentine origins of the Second Amendment are the subject of J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (1975). A history on the Anglo origins that supports the notion that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to possess arms for individual self-defense is Joyce Lee Malcolm, To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right (1994).

An overview of early American history supporting the view that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to possess arms is Stephen P. Halbrook, The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms (2008). Works arguing that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to defend the nation in a well-organized militia force include Saul Cornell, A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America (2006); Patrick J. Charles, The Second Amendment: The Intent and Its Interpretation by the States and the Supreme Court (2009); and Carl T. Bogus (ed.), The Second Amendment in Law and History (2000).