"Heller, Guns, and History: The Judicial Invention of Tradition" (
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2081973 )
Northeastern University Law Journal, Vol. 3, p. 175, 2011
Washington University in St. Louis Legal Studies Research Paper No.
12-05-25 ( http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/PIP_Journal.cfm?pip_jrnl=382963
)
DAVID KONIG (
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=340823 ),
Washington University in Saint Louis - School of Law
Email: [email protected]
It is a widely accepted fact that the firearm mortality rate in the
United States exceeds that of any comparable nation. This article
explores why, from a historical perspective, the United States permits
widespread private use of firearms and how gun violence has been framed
as a product of cultural tradition. It is not the purpose of this
article to question the historical existence of such violence, which is
overwhelming, but to question its historical normativity – that is, to
ask why our culture has permitted this violence. As a descriptive
matter, such violence has become a tradition; as a normative matter, by
contrast, it is very much an invented tradition. What is invented, that
is, is not the fact of its existence, but rather its elevation to a
normative status which distorts the past and grants this tradition
constitutional acknowledgment. What once was a regrettable and
embarrassing fact of life has become a widely accepted, and often
admired tradition.
****************************************************************************************************************
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/constitutional_law/joseph_olson.html
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