Jack Rakove, at Stanford, has asked me to circulate the following information about a conference at Stanford on the 2nd Amendment that he will be running this coming weekend: Few provisions of the Constitution are more controversial than the Second Amendment, which protects "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." On Friday April 20 and Saturday April 21, the Stanford Law School and Stanford Humanities Center will sponsor a two day conference on "The Second Amendment: History, Evidence, and the Constitution." The conference will bring together many of the leading legal scholars and historians who have shaped the ongoing debate over the meaning of this clause. The two main schools of interpretation will each be well represented: those who argue that the Second Amendment protects a basic individual right to own firearms, and those who hold that the Amendment leaves the states free to regulate the use and perhaps even the ownership of firearms. The conference will begin with a public lecture by Professor Michael Bellesiles of Emory University, the author of the widely discussed and controversial new book, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, which challenges the long held assumption that Americans in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries were a well-armed people who made regular use of firearms for hunting, self-defense, and militia duty. In his lecture, to be given in on Friday afternoon at 4:15 in History Corner, Room 2, Bellesiles will explain "How Americans Became an Armed People." Following the lecture, Bellesiles will sign copies of his book, which recently received the prestigious Bancroft Prize. The second day of the conference, Saturday, April 21, will consist of three panel discussions, beginning at 9 a.m., to be held in Room 290, Crown Quadrangle, Stanford Law School, at 559 Nathan Abbott Way. Each panel will address a handful of critical questions and focus on the use and interpretation of the key pieces of evidence that sustain the competing views. The panelists will not present papers but instead engage in a lively give-and-take. Following a general welcome from Dean Kathleen Sullivan of the Stanford Law School, the first panel will consider "The Anglo-American Background to the Second Amendment." This panel will consider both the legacy of 18th-century English and American ideas about value of an armed citizenry in preserving liberty, and also what we know about the actual use of firearms by Americans both before and after the Revolution. The second panel, "The Second Amendment: Original Meaning(s)," will focus on the origins and interpretation of the exact language of the Second Amendment. Does the reference to "a well-regulated militia" in the opening words of the Amendment restrict the right only to citizen who are also soldiers, or is it to be understood as making all citizens potential members of the militia? Would the Second Amendment have been understood as limiting the authority of states and communities to regulate firearms in the interest of public safety? Or was the Amendment written to recognize a popular right of revolution that would be meaningless if citizens could not keep private arms? The final panel, "Firearms Regulation: Present and Future," will examine the current state of the legal and constitutional restrictions on the ownership and use of firearms. Regardless of the meaning of the Second Amendment, do the provisions of many state constitutions protecting private ownership of firearms make any serious regulation doubtful? What is the likely course that future efforts to promote or restrict the regulation of firearms will take. For further information, you can click on http://www.law.stanford.edu/conference/. Robert -- Robert Post School of Law (Boalt Hall) University of California at Berkeley Berkeley, California 510-642-9523 FAX: 510-643-2672 -- The Second Amendment Foundation has a web page of links rebutting Bellesiles at: http://www.saf.org/pub/rkba/general/GunsInEarlyAmerica.htm I also mention this link and others on my highlights page: http://rkba.org/highlights.html Jeff C. __ To: firearms-alert From: Jeff Chan Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 15:28:30 -0700 Subject: Stanford Second Amendment conference program 4/20 - 4/21 Here are some excerpts from the program at: http://www.law.stanford.edu/conference/ I'll probably go to the Saturday session. Is anyone else planning to attend? Should we consider protesting Bellesiles? __ Stanford Law School and the Stanford Humanities Center present "The Second Amendment: History, Evidence, and the Constitution" A TWO-DAY CONFERENCE OFFERING HISTORICAL AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE SECOND AMENDMENT Friday, April 20, 2001 Room 2, Building 200 (History Corner), Main Quadrangle, Stanford University 4:15 p.m. Keynote lecture: "How Americans Became an Armed People" Michael Bellesiles Professor of History Emory University Author of Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture Saturday, April 21, 2001 Room 290, Crown Quadrangle, Stanford Law School, 559 Nathan Abbott Way 9:15 a.m. Welcome Kathleen M. Sullivan Dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Stanley Morrison Professor of Law, Stanford Law School 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. "The Anglo-American Background to the Second Amendment" Michael A. Bellesiles Professor of History Emory University Robert Cottrol Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law and Professor of History The George Washington University Joyce Lee Malcolm Professor of History Bentley College Lois G. Schwoerer Elmer Louis Kayser Professor of History, Emeritus The George Washington University Jack N. Rakove (Moderator) Coe Professor of History and American Studies Stanford University 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. "The Second Amendment: Original Meaning(s)" Akhil Reed Amar Southmayd Professor of Law Yale University Visiting Professor of Law Stanford University Sanford V. Levinson W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood Jr. Centennial Chair in Law Professor of Government University of Texas Jack N. Rakove Coe Professor of History and American Studies Stanford University Glenn Harlan Reynolds Professor of Law University of Tennessee Kathleen M. Sullivan (Moderator) Dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law Stanley Morrison Professor of Law Stanford Law School 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. "Firearms Regulation: Present and Future" Carl T. Bogus Associate Professor of Law Roger Williams University Eugene Volokh Professor of Law UCLA Robert Weisberg Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law Stanford University Pam Karlan (Moderator) Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law Stanford University [...] Free and open to the public For more information, please call 650/725-6545, or e-mail sgiraud@law.stanford.edu-nospam. Sandy An archived webcast of the conference will be available on this site shortly after the event. -- Jeff Chan http://www.jeffchan.com/ From: Jeff Chan Subject: ACTION: Stanford Second Amendment Conference info and flyers to hand out Some additional information on Stanford's Second Amendment Conference Friday 4/20 and Saturday 4/21. The Friday keynote speech by Bellesiles will probably run only an hour. The auditorium can hold 200 according to Sandy Giraud. The Saturday panel discussions are the main event. Parking meters at Stanford run until 4pm on Friday. After that time no parking permit is required. Meters do not run on Saturday. (Finding a parking space at Stanford can be a challenge.) I asked Sandy about turnout and the possibility of protesting. She said she had several calls about the event but has no estimates about turnout. She had no opinion on the potential audience for protests. The program and official info can be found at: http://www.law.stanford.edu/conference/ Randy Herrst provided a flyer they handed out when Bellesiles spoke at U.C. Irvine: http://rkba.org/research/herrst/bellesiles-flyer.doc http://rkba.org/research/herrst/bellesiles-flyer.html (imperfect HTML conversion by Word) I've edited Randy's flyer, adding some material and reformatting: http://rkba.org/research/bellesiles/stanford-chan-flyer.html Please send me your comments on this before I go to Kinkos tonight. I'll probably make 200 copies. Please also let me know if you'd like to help hand them out on Saturday. I'm assuming Jim March is game. Jeff C.