Reva B. Siegel, J.D., M.Phil., is the Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Joseph Blocher, J.D., M.Phil., is the Lanty L. Smith '67 Professor of Law at Duke Law School.
J Law Med Ethics. 2020 Dec;48(4_suppl):11-16. doi: 10.1177/1073110520979395.
Courts reviewing gun laws that burden Second Amendment rights ask how effectively the laws serve public safety - yet typically discuss public safety narrowly, without considering the many dimensions of that interest gun laws serve. "Public safety" is a social good: it includes the public's interest in physical safety as a good in itself, and as a foundation for community and for the exercise of constitutional liberties. Gun laws protect bodies from bullets - and Americans' freedom and confidence to participate in every domain of our shared life, whether to attend school, to shop, to listen to a concert, to gather for prayer, or to assemble in peaceable debate. Courts must enforce the Second Amendment in ways that respect the public health and constitutional reasons a democracy seeks to protect public safety. Lawyers and citizen advocates can help, by creating a richer record of their reasons in seeking to enact laws regulating guns.This inquiry is urgent at a time when the Supreme Court's new conservative majority may expand restrictions on gun laws beyond the right to keep arms for self-defense in the home first recognized in in 2008.
法院审查限制第二修正案权利的枪支法律时，会询问这些法律在多大程度上有效服务于公共安全——但通常狭义地讨论公共安全，而不考虑枪支法律所服务的这一利益的许多方面。“公共安全”是一种社会公益：它包括公众对自身身体安全的利益，以及作为社区和行使宪法自由的基础。枪支法律保护身体免受子弹侵害——保护美国人的自由和信心，让他们能够参与我们共同生活的各个领域，无论是上学、购物、听音乐会、祈祷，还是和平辩论。法院必须以尊重民主社会寻求保护公共安全的公共健康和宪法理由的方式执行第二修正案。律师和公民倡导者可以通过在寻求制定枪支法规时创建更丰富的记录来提供帮助。在最高法院新的保守派多数派可能会将枪支法律的限制扩大到 2008 年首次承认的在家中自卫持有的权利之外的时候，这种调查迫在眉睫。
