Citation

Blocher J, Vaseghi B. J. Law Med. Ethics 2020; 48(Suppl 4): 112-118.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/1073110520979409

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Does the [USA] Second Amendment protect those who threaten others by negligently or recklessly wielding firearms? What line separates constitutionally legitimate gun displays from threatening activities that can be legally proscribed? This article finds guidance in the First Amendment doctrine of true threats, which permits punishment of "statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individual." The Second Amendment, like the First, should not be read to protect those who threaten unlawful violence. And to the degree that the constitution requires a culpable mental state (mens rea) in such circumstances, the appropriate standard should be recklessness.

Language: en