Description
This research project explores the Second Amendment debate through the lens of Congress's power to enact legislation. It evaluates whether or not Congress has power through the Commerce Clause and/or Equal Protection Clause to create gun control legislation, placing these rights and powers in conversation with Second Amendment rights. This paper provides a legal groundwork for gun control, using case briefs, law reviews, and Supreme Court rulings. It analyzes the implications of precedent on the legal response to potential future legislation regarding gun control. With this framework, a response to case history will provide a legal argument for why Congress can, and should, pursue reasonable gun control regulations. My thesis statement is that Congress, by powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution (the Commerce Clause), and to protect rights laid out to citizens in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, can constitutionally enact federal gun control legislation in America. This project is significant because it provides a specific and actionable legal outline for federal gun control.
What Can Congress Do: The Second Amendment versus the Commerce and Equal Protection Clauses
This research project explores the Second Amendment debate through the lens of Congress's power to enact legislation. It evaluates whether or not Congress has power through the Commerce Clause and/or Equal Protection Clause to create gun control legislation, placing these rights and powers in conversation with Second Amendment rights. This paper provides a legal groundwork for gun control, using case briefs, law reviews, and Supreme Court rulings. It analyzes the implications of precedent on the legal response to potential future legislation regarding gun control. With this framework, a response to case history will provide a legal argument for why Congress can, and should, pursue reasonable gun control regulations. My thesis statement is that Congress, by powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution (the Commerce Clause), and to protect rights laid out to citizens in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, can constitutionally enact federal gun control legislation in America. This project is significant because it provides a specific and actionable legal outline for federal gun control.