The United States Second Amendment and Civil Disobedience

Abstract

Civil disobedience is becoming increasingly relevant as movements across the world emerge in support of what protesters see to be a worthy cause. This has resulted in lengthy debates about what exactly civil disobedience is. While these debates are important, this paper instead tries to bring together two highly debated topics by exploring the legal nexus between civil disobedience and the Second Amendment in the United States of America. This is done by addressing the connections of civil disobedience to both the Second Amendment’s historical justifications and to recent movements against it. The paper shows that while there are some issues presented by the non-violence, non-revolution and illegality components of civil disobedience, a legal relationship between the Second Amendment and civil disobedience can be found. That is, the paper shows how the Second Amendment provides not a right to resist, revolution, or rebellion but rather a right to civil disobedience. This is shown by connecting the underlying principles of the Second Amendment and civil disobedience, which include the right of the people to form citizens’ militias and the right to popular resistance. Oppressive government regimes are also something that both civil disobedience and the historical justifications of the Second Amendment aim to prevent, supporting the argument that the Second Amendment provides a right to civil disobedience. The paper also shows that, in recent times, the Second Amendment has attracted significant controversy, maintaining its connection to civil disobedience via protest movements against its very existence. Key