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Guns

No Second Amendment Right to Export Guns (Including to Haiti)

"John Adams, Oliver Ellsworth, Rufus King, Albert Gallatin, Robert Morris, James Monroe, Joseph Story, Jonathan Trumbull, James Madison, Henry Clay, [and] John Quincy Adams ... knew a thing or two about the Constitution."

Eugene Volokh | 8.12.2026 8:32 AM

An excerpt from the longish decision in Monday's U.S. v. Clerfe, written by Third Circuit Judge David Porter, joined by Chief Judge Michael Chagares and Judge Jane Roth:

Derby Clerfe purchased handguns in the United States and smuggled them to the Republic of Haiti in violation of numerous federal laws. He was indicted for and later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate federal laws that prohibit exporting firearms without filing an export information ….

We agree with the government that "keep[ing] and bear[ing[] Arms" does not encompass sending them abroad in violation of arms-trafficking laws.

We begin with Heller, which explicated the meaning of the phrases "keep arms" and "bear arms." Looking to founding-era dictionaries and treatises, the Supreme Court concluded that "the most natural reading of 'keep Arms' in the Second Amendment is to 'have weapons.'" … By comparison, Clerfe's conduct—exporting arms........

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