The Aporia · If You Replace the 13 Arrows on the U.S. Great Seal with a Modern Rifle, Make Sure You Depict a 50-Round Magazine

If You Replace the 13 Arrows on the U.S. Great Seal with a Modern Rifle, Make Sure You Depict a 50-Round Magazine

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Volokh, E. (2026, September 6). If You Replace the 13 Arrows on the U.S. Great Seal with a Modern Rifle, Make Sure You Depict a 50-Round Magazine. Reason. https://reason.com/volokh/2026/09/03/if-you-replace-the-13-arrows-on-the-u-s-great-seal-with-a-modern-rifle-make-sure-you-depict-a-50-round-magazine/

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Quick Summary

A law professor from The Volokh Conspiracy website discusses whether it is legal for Rep. Eric Burlison's website to display a graphic of the Great Seal with an AR-15 style weapon replacing the quiver of arrows, arguing that it is protected by the First Amendment. The professor cites Spence v. Washington (1974) as precedent for allowing modification of the flag and seal for personal expression. No specific numbers or statistics are mentioned in the article. The author's opinion piece presents a libertarian perspective on the matter, with the goal of defending Burlison's use of the modified Great Seal.

Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-06, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Rep. Eric Burlison's website features a graphic that replaces the quiver of arrows on the U.S. Great Seal with an AR-15 style weapon, according to a report by KY3 news channel. The image is similar to the official Great Seal, which has 13 arrows in its design, but the modern rifle depicted in the graphic has a 50-round magazine. Law professor Eugene Volokh argues that displaying such an updated version of the seal is protected by the First Amendment, citing the case of Spence v. Washington (1974), where it was ruled that even attaching a peace symbol to the American flag is allowed. This means that Burlison's graphic is likely legally permissible, but Volokh notes that there may be exceptions for impersonation or fraud.

Written for “U.S. National Symbol Reimagined” on 2026-10-22, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

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Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

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Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

0 of 5 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

withheld

no quote in the article backed the model's score

Publisher signals

67/100

Reason's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Politics

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-09-06 · how these are computed

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Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Reason · 869 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected

Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Eugene Volokh

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Also by Eugene Volokh

Open Thread

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2026-10-19 · Reason

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 156 articles by Eugene Volokh →

Topics

AR-15 American KY3 Wikipedia the First Amendment

Subjects

KY3 ORG · 2× American NORP · 1× Eric Burlison PERSON · 1× Mozambique GPE · 1× Paul Adler PERSON · 1× Spence PERSON · 1× Washington GPE · 1× Wikipedia ORG · 1×

Narrative

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent As KY3 (Paul Adler) notes, "[a] graphic on [Rep.] Eric Burlison's website resembles the Great Seal but replaces the quiver of arrows with an AR-15 style weapon."

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-06

2026-09-06 · Reason

If You Replace the 13 Arrows on the U.S. Great Seal with a Modern Rifle, Make Sure You Depict a 50-Round Magazine · assertive framing

Claims (5 extracted, 0 hedged)

graphic → note → weapon

I say yes, for various reasons, but most importantly the First Amendment. asserted

I → say → reasons

The First Amendment protects the right to fly the American flag—that is to say, your own copy of the flag—with a peace symbol attached, see Spence v. Washington (1974). asserted

symbol → protect → Washington

Of course, it famously protects even the right to burn the flag. asserted

it → protect → flag

It likewise protects your right to display a copy of the great seal with some technological updating (unless, of course you're doing so to knowingly impersonate government officials or to otherwise defraud people in various ways). asserted

you → protect → ways