Reconsidering McDonald v. Chicago: How the 14th Amendment Obliges States to Protect the Fundamental Right to Bear Arms

For decades, debate has raged over whether the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the individual right to keep and bear arms. In its landmark 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right. Many assumed that lower courts would take the next logical step of “incorporation”—recognizing that the right to keep and bear arms, like the right to free speech, is among the fundamental liberties th...