"The Keystone of the Second Amendment: Quakers, the Pennsylvania
Constitution, and the Questionable Scholarship of Nathan
Kozuskanich"
Widener Law Journal, Vol. 19, 2010
Contact: DAVID B. KOPEL
Independence Institute, Denver University, Sturm
College of Law
Email: [email protected]
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=42480
Co-Author: CLAYTON E. CRAMER
Sonoma State University
Email: [email protected]
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=924912
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1502925
ABSTRACT: Historian Nathan Kozuskanich claims that the Second
Amendment-like the arms provision of the 1776 Pennsylvania
Constitution-is only a guarantee of a right of individuals to
participate in the militia, in defense of the polity.
Kozuskanich’s claim about the Second Amendment is based on two
articles he wrote about the original public meaning of the right
to arms in Pennsylvania, including the 1776 and 1790 Pennsylvania
constitutional arms guarantees.
Part I of this Article provides a straightforward legal history
of the right to arms provisions in the 1776 Pennsylvania
Constitution and of the 1790 Pennsylvania Constitution. We
examine Kozuskanich’s claims about constitutional language and
history.
Part II investigates Kozuskanich's analysis of Quakers who
objected to serving in the militia. According to Kozuskanich, the
Quaker's protests against being forced to “bear arms” in the
militia demonstrate that “bear arms” is exclusively a military
term; therefore the “right to keep and bear arms” is only about
owning and carrying militia weapons.
But as it turns out, the Quakers were not as pro-gun as
Kozuskanich acknowledges. Some Quakers refused to use firearms
for personal defense, or even to carry arms ornamentally.
Moreover, a review of Kozuskanich’s citations of writings by
Quakers and other pacifists reveals that not a single one
expressed any willingness to possess arms outside the militia.
Several of the cited sources have nothing to do with pacifists'
arms.
Finally, Part III looks at some astonishing assertions made by
Kozuskanich that cast doubts about the accuracy of his
characterization of the work of other scholars.
*******************************************************************
Professor Joseph Olson, J.D., LL.M.
o- 651-523-2142
Hamline University School of Law (MS-D2037) f-
651-523-2236
St. Paul, MN 55113-1235
c- 612-865-7956
[email protected]
http://law.hamline.edu/node/784
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