How an Italian Criminologist from the 1700s is Crucial to Your Second Amendment Rights...

Have you heard the saying “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns”? This bit of wisdom comes from an Italian criminologist who lived in the 1700s. This thinker deeply influenced America’s Founders. He’s a big reason why we have a Second Amendment. And he helps us see why gun restrictions are not just useless but counterproductive...
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TIMESTAMPS
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0:00 When Guns Are Outlaws...
1:00 Beccaria Heavily Influenced the Founders
3:30 Even Liberals Cite Beccaria
5:19 Beccaria Was Extremely Pro-Gun
6:57 Beccaria Would Oppose Today's Anti-Gun Policies
8:44 Wrap Up

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SUMMARY
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Cesare Beccaria has a lot to do with America’s constitutional and legal system. Beccaria was a prominent Enlightenment thinker who has been called the “father of modern criminology.” He was a significant influence on America’s Founders. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were so taken with his work that they copied his passages by hand. James Madison included Beccaria in his list of recommended reading for the Continental Congress. The great British attorney William Blackstone—a huge influence on the Founders—cited Beccaria more than any other source in his famous Commentaries.

So it makes sense that the American legal community is starting to give Beccaria his due. But courts and legal scholars are selective in recognizing his influence. What do I mean by that? Well, judges have been happy to cite Beccaria to argue against the death penalty. Legal scholars have traced the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishments” back to Beccaria’s work. Beccaria has also received recognition for helping shape the Fifth Amendment, pardon power, criminal sentencing, and more.

But there’s a glaring omission in the Beccaria revival. What is it? How he inspired the Founders to protect the right to keep and bear arms.

Beccaria saw self-defense as a natural right and fiercely opposed gun control. Take this passage that Thomas Jefferson liked so much he copied it into his personal “Legal Commonplace Book.” Beccaria wrote that gun bans disarm only those “who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent.” In other words, when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns! Beccaria added that restrictive gun laws don’t prevent violent crime. They actually encourage it. Why? Because, he said, “it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons.”

To Beccaria, it made no sense to ban guns out of fear that they’d be misused. He said that would be like depriving people of fire “for fear of their being burnt,” or of water “for fear of their being drowned.”

So now you know why Cesare Beccaria is an important part of the Second Amendment story. The Supreme Court tells us that we need to understand the history of the Second Amendment to interpret it properly. And Beccaria is a crucial part of this history. More courts need to acknowledge him.

And Beccaria is not a mere historical footnote. His arguments are more relevant today than ever. The anti-gunners are doing whatever they can to restrict your gun rights. Meanwhile, government is unable to preserve order. Beccaria shows why that is such a dangerous combination.

§ Further reading: Enlightenment Thinker Cesare Beccaria and His Influence on the Founders: Understanding the Meaning and Purpose of the Second Amendment’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 2020 Pepperdine L. Rev. 71 (2020).

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