No. of Recommendations: 3
• Early Rejection (Cruikshank, 1876): In United States v. Cruikshank, the Supreme Court initially ruled that the Second Amendment limited only the federal government, not state governments, temporarily blunting the Reconstruction-era push to use federal power to protect freedmen's arms rights.
• Incorporation (McDonald v. Chicago, 2010): The Supreme Court formally reversed that early view, ruling in McDonald that the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause incorporates the Second Amendment, making the individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense enforceable against state and local governments."
Reconstruction era debates not withstanding, for the next 134 years it was okay to restrict gun rights. Maybe, just maybe, the 21st century rulings had nothing to do with the reasoning of the reconstruction era? Maybe, just maybe, it was Repugnicans creating a wedge issue?
