The Statute of Northampton by the Late Eighteenth Century: Clarifying the Intellectual Legacy

Abstract

In a article examining the “myths and realities about early American gun regulation,” Saul Cornell provides new insight as to how the right to arms outside the home evolved in Antebellum law. Cornell’s article is arguably the first to seriously examine this legal development and I do not challenge his general findings in this regard. Where we seemingly diverge is the role that the Statute of Northampton served in this process, particularly its intellectual application by the nineteenth century. This article addresses those concerns and the Second Amendment outside the home.

Keywords: Second Amendment, Statute of Northampton, bear arms, keep arms, outside the home, legal history, originalism