My latest Bloomberg column uses the Second Amendment as a case study in how James Madison thought the Bill of Rights should work.

A lot of people who want tighter gun control blame the Supreme Court for standing in their way. In 2008, a 5-4 majority read the Second Amendment to protect an individual’s right to own guns. That decision, writes Fareed Zakaria, “has made common-sense regulation of guns much harder” and contributed to America’s high gun-homicide rate. The court’s rulings have “severely hobbled” lawmakers in regulating guns, claims Ian Millhiser. The massacre at a nightclub in Orlando last weekend has led to renewed attacks on the court’s gun rulings.
But the practical importance of these judicial rulings has been exaggerated. They are well down the list of obstacles to gun control in America. . . .