The right to bear arms : rights and liberties under the law / Robert J. Spitzer.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-256) and index.

Origins : the British heritage -- The colonial experience -- The Constitution -- The Bill of Rights -- The decline of the old militia system -- Supreme Court rulings -- Other court rulings -- The textbook view -- Twentieth-century issues : alternate views -- The "right of revolution" -- Spreading arguments in the media -- Seeking shelter under the Fourteenth Amendment -- The Second Amendment and politics -- Rights talk -- The twenty-first century : the Brady Law, the assault weapons ban, and beyond -- The new militia movement -- Recent court actions -- Escalating Second Amendment rhetoric -- Key people, cases, and events -- Documents : the Calling Forth Act of 1792 -- The Uniform Militia Act of 1792 -- United States v. Cruikshank (1876) -- Presser v. Illinois (1886) -- United States v. Miller (1939) -- Quilici v. Village of Morton Grove (1982) -- State right-to-bear-arms provisions -- Major party platform statements on gun control.