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Helpful(?) Heller head-scratching

By Douglas A. Berman

Over at Convictions, a bunch of smart folks are asking effective and provocative questions about the Heller ruling and its aftermath.  Jack Balkin explores "Heller and The Constitutional Right of Self-Defense" with these important questions and observations:Does the right of self-defense secure a right to use weapons other than firearms for self-defense in the home? After all, isn't the point of the right of self-defense to defend oneself, and if other instrumentalities are equally useful for that purpose, why should their possession and use not be equally protected?... By now you get the basic idea: The right nominally protected in Heller is the right to use guns in self-defense in the home. What is not clear is how important the terms "guns" and "home" are to the this right...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 10, 2008 (boomark / email).