Lawyers, Guns, and Money: The Impact of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission on the Second Amendment and Gun-Control

“A fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American Public,” is how former Chief Justice Warren Burger described the idea that the Second Amendment guarantees an inalienable right for Americans to own a firearm. That fraud, the former Chief Justice contended, was the creation of special interest groups. Over the past fifteen years, the amount of money invested in political campaigns has exploded to record levels as independent organizations have spent billions of dollars to advocate for or against certain candidates. At the same time, the rates of gun deaths and mass shootings in the United States have also sky rocketed. But Congress has passed very few pieces of legislation to curtail the possession of firearms, as pro-gun advocates assert that the Second Amendment is absolute. With pro-gun groups spending millions of dollars to support a candidate or political position, this Note argues that campaign finance reform may be one way to curtail gun violence in America.