Douglas W. Kmiec Professor Posner is right that -- by originalist lights -- the argument for gun rights belongs in the legislature, not the Court.  Nothing said in the Heller oral argument persuasively demonstrated that the Second Amendment as originally understood protects an individual right of self-defense.  The Court may decide to ...

Akhil Amar’s analysis of Heller is unlikely to persuade any justices doctrinally, but it captures the cultural point that will decide this case. According to Amar, the Second Amendment had to do with militias, so it doesn’t create an individual right. However, he doesn’t think that ends the question. The Ninth Amendment states that “the ...