Gun Control on Trial (Hardcover)

By: Brian Doherty

In June 2008, the Supreme Court decided a question at the heart of one of America’s most impassioned debates, ruling that individual citizens have the constitutional right to possess guns. With that decision, the District of Columbia's handgun ban – one of the toughest and most controversial in the nation – was ended.

In "Gun Control on Trial," journalist Brian Doherty tells the full story behind the landmark District of Columbia v. Heller ruling. With exclusive, behind-the-scenes access throughout the case, Doherty delved into the issues of this monumental case to provide a compelling look at the inside stories, including:

• The plaintiffs’ fight for the right to protect themselves and their families from violent neighborhoods.
• The activist lawyers who worked exhaustively to affirm that right.
• The forces that fought to stop the case, including city officials and the NRA.

The story of the Heller case stretches back to long before the decision struck down D.C.’s restrictive gun ban and forward to the future of the political and legal battle over gun control in America. Doherty provides clear, concise explanations of the issues and battles that have driven the gun control debate for decades, detailing how the Heller decision is a new starting point for the gun control debate as it passionately and energetically continues in the years ahead. It’s important to note that the Heller decision does not settle every controversy in the gun control debate. It settles only the legal question of whether or not the right to possess weapons under the Second Amendment extends to personal self-defense: It does, writes Doherty. What the Supreme Court decided in Heller may be narrow in its direct and immediate effect, but it’s deep in its implications for the relationship between the government and the American people, explains Doherty. It establishes a new shape to the arena in which the legal and political struggle over guns and gun control will be fought. And that fight assuredly continues.

Reviews

“As Brian Doherty so clearly demonstrates in 'Gun Control on Trial,' were it not for the rights guaranteed in the Second Amendment—and reaffirmed, in this inside account, by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller—we would forfeit our individual right to survive.”

- NAT HENTOFF
Columnist, Village Voice
Author, "Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American"

 

“Brian Doherty’s 'Gun Control on Trial' is to the Heller case what Richard Kluger’s 'Simple Justice' is to the Brown decision—an essential history made up of equal parts legal theory and personal struggle, presented in page-turning fashion.”

- GLENN REYNOLDS
Professor of Law, University of Tennessee
Founder, Instapundit.com

 

“The Supreme Court’s Heller decision wasn’t merely a political bombshell, it was an historic advance in the ongoing struggle to restore the first human right: the right to self-defense. Brian Doherty, a tireless intellectual sleuth, not only sheds light on the political and legal questions surrounding gun rights today, he lucidly puts them in their proper historical and philosophical context. This is required reading for those interested in, never mind committed to, the right to self-defense.”

—JONAH GOLDBERG
Contributing Editor, National Review
Author, "Liberal Fascism"

 

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Cato Institute (December 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933995254
• ISBN-13: 978-1933995250