Book contents
- Managed Dissent
- Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- Managed Dissent
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Protest, Dissent, and Democracy
- 2 The Managerial System
- 3 Displacing Dissent
- 4 The Rising Costs of Dissent
- 5 Managing Campus Protest
- 6 Arming Public Protests
- 7 Public Protest and Emergency Powers
- 8 Protesters’ Remedies
- 9 Preserving Public Protest
- Notes
- Index
6 - Arming Public Protests
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2023
- Managed Dissent
- Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- Managed Dissent
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Protest, Dissent, and Democracy
- 2 The Managerial System
- 3 Displacing Dissent
- 4 The Rising Costs of Dissent
- 5 Managing Campus Protest
- 6 Arming Public Protests
- 7 Public Protest and Emergency Powers
- 8 Protesters’ Remedies
- 9 Preserving Public Protest
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Chapter 6 examines the special challenges public carry of firearms pose for public protest. Arming public protests is incompatible with peaceful forms of dissent. It threatens to intimidate protesters and chill protected First Amendment activity in the public square. The chapter proposes several measures that can reduce or eliminate these harms, including prohibitions on public carry at permitted events, bans on armed groups in public places, and place restrictions deemed presumptively valid under the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has recently issued an expansive interpretation of public carry rights, based on the nation’s historical practice of gun regulation. But there is historical support for at least some restrictions on public carry at or near public protest events. Even if the best that can be done is a ban on open carry, that would alleviate some of the most nefarious effects public carry has on public protest.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Managed DissentThe Law of Public Protest, pp. 143 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023