FILE PHOTO: Men carry rifles as people protest outside the Kenosha County Courthouse after a Black man, identified as Jacob Blake, was shot several times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S. Picture taken August 25, 2020.REUTERS/Stephen Maturen
(Reuters) - The robust American traditions of free speech and gun rights are clashing at anti-racism protests this year in a way rarely seen before in the United States, legal scholars and law enforcement leaders say.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees citizens the right to free speech, and the Second the right to bear arms. But they are colliding in new ways, as "open carry" of guns to demonstrations becomes more common, officials at six police departments along with six legal scholars said.
