The brief of Academics for the Second Amendment discusses the drafting and ratification of the Second Amendment. It argues that the history clearly points to an uncontroversial individual right to arms for private purposes, and argues that DC's theory of the Amendment's meaning is based on proposals which Madison and Congress rejected. My favorite part of the brief is its use of the phrase "a tub to the whale."

A brief from the Institute for Justice supplies the history of the Reconstruction Congresses, and of the 14th Amendment. It shows that (whatever implications one might draw about incorporation), the understanding of the Second Amendment at that time was that it was a personal right to arms for private purposes, particularly the purpose of defending the homes of freedmen from Klan attacks.

And a brief for the President of the Pennsylvania Senate provides the history of the right to arms in that state.

These briefs counter arguments raised by DC and by its amici historians. As both these briefs acknowledge, proving that the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution right to arms was not a right to self-defense arms is essential to their cause. Strangely, they cite a forthcoming article in a Rutgers law review, written by a protege of Saul Cornell, which appears to have not been made available, in its pre-publication form, anywhere the public can review. Keeping that article out of sight of Heller and his amici perhaps betrays a grave lack of confidence in whether that article's claims could withstand serious scrutiny. I am unaware of any pre-publication article that has been cited by Heller and his amici which is not already available on SSRN or another public web site.