Guns in America

Every argument about politics in the United States eventually turns into an argument about health care, guns, or both. Neither topic is discussed in most books on software engineering, but I think there’s a lot to learn about big tech’s effective immunity from regulation from looking at why the US seems unable or unwilling to tackle gun violence. I don’t have anything new to add, but here are a few things I’ve learned over the years. Well into the Twentieth Century, the prevailing view was that the Second Amendment protected a collective right tied to participation in an organized militia, The current individual-rights interpretation was established by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), a 5–4 decision that overturned Washington D.C.’s handgun ban. The 2022 Bruen decision went further, imposing a historical-analogues test for firearm regulations that has invalidated restrictions the Heller majority did not contemplate overturning. The constitutional…