Heller and the Perils of Compromise

Abstract

Heller’s compromise was to invalidate one quite restrictive gun regulation while asserting that others are presumptively constitutional. The Court’s opinion does not clearly explicate the methods courts are to use in analyzing gun regulations, and the analogies it draws between the First and the Second Amendments leave the methodological question open. By sketching how First Amendment methods might be applied to Second Amendment problems, this Essay suggests that the revolution in Second Amendment jurisprudence Heller wrought may be less substantial than gun-rights proponents hope.