Podcast on
McDonald. iVoices.org. June 28, 2010.
MP3.
Kopel on Denver’s Caplis & Silverman radio show, KHOW. 1st hour of the show, June 28, 2010. Show archive.
|
Right to Arms: USA
Kopel has "single-handedly...changed the gun debate in the United States." John Fund, Wall Street Journal, speech at the Gun Rights Policy Conference, Crystal City, Virginia, September 2004.
Topics on this page:
Firearms Topics on Other Pages:
Foreign gun control. Subtopics: Africa. Ancient Greece and Rome. Australia. Canada. Eastern Europe. Germany. Great Britain. Hungary. Israel. Italy. Jamaica. Japan. New Zealand. Poland. Switzerland. United Nations. Sign up for free Second Amendment Project e-mail newsletter. Latest issue, June 18.
New
on this page and on the international right to arms page:
As the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty Process Begins, U.N.’s “Programme of Action” on
Small Arms Shows Its Dangers. Heritage Foundation WebMemo #2969,
July 20, 2010. With Theodore Bromund. The Mark of “C”. While
Anti-Gunners in Congress Hail Him as the New Zorro, President Calderón
Takes a Swipe at American Gun Rights. America's 1st Freedom.
August 2010.
***Kopel
oral testimony on Kagan nomination. Starts at 41:09.
YouTube of Kopel only,
including Q&A with Senators Sessions and Hatch.
Audio only. MP3
download.
Written testimony on Elena Kagan
nomination. Co-authored with Stephen Halbrook.
Wins of Change.
Special digital edition of America's 1st Freedom, July 2010. Long article
by Kopel explaining the Supreme Court opinions in McDonald.
Kopel on NRA's The Daily News, with
Ginny Simone. July 1, 2010. Starting at 1:52. 18 minutes.
Sotomayor targets guns now. Justice's dissent contradicts confirmation
testimony. Washington Times, June 29, 2010.
Federalist 46.
"The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared," by James Madison.
Kopel examines how well Madison's expectations turned out in practice, and
Madison's praise for the American "advantage of being armed." Constituting
America, June 30, 2010.
Mike Rosen show. Discussion of McDonald, Kagan nomination, other
Supreme Court issues. One hour. 850 KOA, Denver. June 29, 2010.
NRA News,
June 28, 2010. Last segment of the show. 28 minutes.
Will Gun Shows Become Extinct?
Anti-gun billionaires Michael Bloomberg and George Soros aim to take a
huge bite out of the Second Amendment. America's 1st Freedom.
July 2010.
Incorporating the Second Amendment. Cato Institute Daily Podcast.
June 22, 2010.
Trimming Citizens.
Efforts to restrict the free speech rights which had been protected
in the Citizens United case. America's 1st
Freedom, June 2010.
Dave Kopel: Aiming for
Liberty. Article about Kopel and his new book. America's 1st
Freedom, June 2010.
The OAS Firearms Convention Is Incompatible with American Liberties.
Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, May 19, 2010. With Theodore
Bromund & Ray Walser.
President Calderón’s Visit Should Not Lead to Support for the OAS’s
Firearms Convention. Heritage Foundation WebMemo. May 19,
2010. With Theodore Bromund & Ray Walser.
How Many Global Deaths from
Arms? Reasons to Question the 740,000 Factoid being used to Promote
the Arms Trade Treaty. 5 NYU Journal of Law & Liberty
(forthcoming, 2010). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.
Bloomberg's
aggressive stance against guns. Denver Post, April 24, 2010. The
Bloomberg "gun show" bill is mostly about issues other than background
checks at gun shows.
Mexico's Federal Laws on
Firearms and Explosives. Denver University, Sturm College of
Law, Research Paper Series.
State court standards of
review for the right to arms. 50 Santa Clara Law Review
1113
(2010). With Clayton Cramer.
The Right to Arms in the
Living Constitution. 2010 Cardozo Law Review de Novo 99.
*****Kopel's
amicus brief in the Supreme
Court case McDonald v. Chicago. (The link takes you to the abstract page.
From there, click, the "Download" button, then click the location from which you
would like to download.)
The Keystone of the Second
Amendment: Quakers, the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the
Questionable Scholarship of Nathan Kozuskanich. 19 Widener Law Journal
271 (2010). With Clayton Cramer.
Credentials are No Substitute for
Accuracy: Nathan Kozuskanich, Stephen Halbrook and the Role of the
Historian. 19 Widener Law Journal 343 (2010). With Clayton Cramer.
The Arms Trade Treaty: Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and the Prospects for Arms Embargoes on Human Rights Violators.
114 Penn State Law Review 891 (2010). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. At the end of this document:
En français, une version de 8 pages de ce document est disponible en
français. En español, el extracto está disponible en español.
Pretend "Gun-free" School Zones: A Deadly Legal Fiction.
42 Connecticut Law Review 515 (2009). PDF.
Cited in Students for
Concealed Carry on Campus v. Regents of University of Colorado
(Colo. App. 2010).
Unraveling Judicial Restraint: Guns, Abortion, and the Faux Conservatism of J. Harvie Wilkinson, III. 25 Journal of Law & Politics 1 (University of Virginia) (2009). Critique of 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Wilkinson's Virginia Law Review article asserting the D.C. v. Heller is a 21st century version of Roe v. Wade. With Nelson Lund.
Carrying Handguns
Subtopics: Armed pilots. Law reviews. Shorter articles. John Lott. Unarmed victims.
The once-fired brass debate. The Obama Department of Defense abruptly announced that it would stop selling once-fired brass to ammunition manufacturers--a move which threatened to substantially worsen the current shortage of ammunition for citizens. But the story has a happy ending, thanks to quick action by Second Amendment supporters. Unfortunately, this week it was also revealed that the Obama administration has moved to destroy the armed pilots program. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Mar. 20, 2009. MP3.
Air Neglect. What's wrong with trained pilots having guns? The TSA is strangling the armed pilots program. National Review Online. July 2, 2003. With Captain David Petteys.
blog: Poll shows public dissatisfied with Norman Minetta's Dept. of Transportation policies on airplane security. 5/21/02. Why stun guns and air marshals are insufficient, 3/11/02.
The Licensing of Concealed Handguns for Lawful Protection: Support from Five State Supreme Courts. Analyzes recent decisions in New Mexico, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island. 68 Albany Law Review 305 (2005). PDF.
"Shall Issue": The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws. 63 Tennessee Law Review 679 (1995). With Clayton Cramer.
Does CHL Ban in Churches Violate the First Amendment? The Volokh Conspiracy. Sept. 29, 2009.
Caplis & Silverman Show. KHOW-Denver. July 22, 2009. MP3. The Senate vote on interstate carry of licensed firearms.
Guns in National Parks. Kopel interviewed by Amy Oliver on KFKA radio. June 10, 2009. 20 minutes. MP3.
Guns in Parks: The Hoplophobes’ Travel Guide to the United States. The New Ledger. May 29, 2009.
Respecting States’ Wishes. Short essay on the new law allowing guns in National Parks. New York Times, "Room for Debate" on-line feature. May 22, 2009.
Free Plaxico Burress. New York City's gun law is unconstitutional. Wall Street Journal. Dec. 4, 2008.
blog: Wisconsin Sup. Ct. upholds ban on gun carrying in cars; dissent cites Kopel. 5/17/06. Nebraska is 40th state to enact Shall Issue licenses for defensive handgun carrying. Also discusses spread of Stand Your Ground laws, 4/1/06. Licensed Carry Wins in Kansas. Plus analysis of other states. 3/24/06.
Gore’s Privileged Gun Class. Government employees aren’t superior to the governed. National Review Online. Oct. 31, 2000.
Gore's Double Standard on Firearms. Gore believes the federal government should mandate that police carry off-duty in states where they don't live; but the federal government should forbid states to allow law-abiding residents to carry guns. Chronicles. Sept. 2000.
Concealed Handgun Permits. Independence Institute Issue Backgrounder on the basics of creating a concealed handgun permit system. Jan. 14, 1999.
Armed Citizens: Gun Permits Amount to Peacemakers. Denver Post. April 20, 1997.
The Untold Triumph of Concealed-Carry Permits. Policy Review magazine. July/Aug. 1996. Reprinted in Tamara L. Roleff, ed. Gun Control. Opposing Viewpoints (Greenhaven Pr., 1997). In italiano.
Get More Guns into Law-abiding Pockets. The American Enterprise, May/June 1995.
More Permits Means Less Crime. Los Angeles Times. Feb. 19, 1996.
Damn Lies -- Or Statistics. Review of John Lott's "More Guns, Less Crime." Chronicles. Dec. 1999.
License to Kill? Dallas Morning News. Feb. 8, 1998. by John Lott. Lott refutes a "study" from the Violence Policy Center claiming that Texans with concealed handgun permits are especially likely to perpetrate violent crime. In truth, concealed carry permit holders are much more law-abiding than the Texas population as a whole.
Gun Prohibitionists Miss Their Mark. The attempted character assassination of John Lott, and its implications for concealed handguns policy. Aug. 27, 1997. With Chris Little.
Pretend "Gun-free" School Zones: A Deadly Legal Fiction. 42 Connecticut Law Review 515 (2009). PDF. Cited in Students for Concealed Carry on Campus v. Regents of University of Colorado (Colo. App. 2010).
Campus Conceal Carry Laws. What's the deal with conceal carry laws as it pertains to college campuses? Jon Caldara sits down with 2nd amendment expert Dave Kopel to talk about the current state of conceal carry on campus in Colorado, and how it compares to Utah, where students are allowed to carry. Run Time:11:52. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Mar. 6, 2009. MP3.
"Gun-Free Zones." Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2007. The murders at Virginia Tech University.
Rapists Like Gun Control. National Review Online, Apr. 14, 2000. What if Juanita Broaddrick had been carrying a gun? In italiano.
Concealed Carry Now. By Ari Armstrong. Op-ed examines the concealed carry debate, in light of the 1999 murder of a woman and two men in a Grand Junction parking lot.
A Fighting Chance. Crime victims left helpless by anti-gun laws, and the gun control mentality. April 21, 1999. By Richard Griffiths.
blog: Case Western gun ban facilitates mass murder at business school, 5/13/03.
Arms Prohibition (of various types of arms and ammunition, or all guns)
Subtopics: Inexpensive guns. Self-loading guns. All guns. Handguns. "Plastic Guns". Fifty Caliber Guns. Machine Guns. Ammunition. Knives.
Selective Disarmament: No Guns for the Poor. Bans on so-called "junk guns" are calculated to make self-defense impossible for the poor. American Guardian. Aug. 1997.
The Mark of “C”. While Anti-Gunners in Congress Hail Him as the New Zorro, President Calderón Takes a Swipe at American Gun Rights. America's 1st Freedom. August 2010.
Attorney General Holder calls for renewal of ban on so-called "assault weapons" in order to help the Mexican government. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Feb. 27, 2009. MP3.
What Next for D.C.'s Gun Laws. Congress should intervene to protect the Second Amendment. Wall Street Journal. August 8, 2008. With Robert A. Levy.
Bait-’n’-Switch. Gun-prohibition lobbyists are after much more than AK-47s. National Review Online. Sept. 13, 2004.
The Silveira Threat. How long will the Second Amendment live? National Review Online. Sept. 23, 2003. Part 2 of a 2-part series on harmful gun rights lawsuits.
Police Show Legitimacy of Semi-automatics. Dave Kopel and Diane Nicholl. July 18, 1998.
Are so-called "Assault Weapons" a Threat to Police Officers? The Law Enforcement Trainer.
Rational Basis of "Assault Weapon" Prohibition. Even putting aside the Second Amendment, "assault weapon" bans are unconstitutional because the guns banned are in no rational way different from other guns. 20 Journal of Contemporary Law 381 (1994).
Colorado Attorney General reply brief in Robertson v. Denver.
Assault Ban Chicanery. Washington Times. May 5, 1994.
"Assault weapons." Senate Judiciary Committee. Aug. 3, 1993. C-Span, Kopel at 198:54, and in Q&A with Senator Feinstein at end of panel. C-Span.
"Assault Weapon" Ban Wouldn't Have Stopped Texas Massacre. The 1991 Killeen, Texas mass shooting. Minneapolis Star Tribune. Oct. 29, 1991.
Anti-Gun Laws Failed to Stop Littleton Killer. How gun prohibition advocates exploited of Eugene Thompson's 1989 rampage in Littleton with a stolen automatic M11 pistol. In italiano.
Banning Assault Rifles Won't Work. Colorado Statesman, Mar. 17, 1989.
Stockton Shootings Disprove Case for Gun Control. Rocky Mountain News. Feb. 3, 1989.
blog: "Large Capacity Clips" and Officer Safety, 5/12/05.
Nannyism and gun control. Kopel speaks at the Nannyism panel held at the Warwick Hotel, Denver, Colorado, as part of the Independence Institute's annual "Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms" celebration. June 19, 2009. 18:46. MySpace video.
Dhimmitude and Disarmament. 18 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 305 (2008). PDF.
U.S. House Votes to Ban Gun Confiscation in Disasters. The Volokh Conspiracy. July 26, 2006.
Defenseless on the Bayou. New Orleans gun confiscation is illegal and foolish. Reason.com. Sept. 10, 2005.
Guns vs. Teddy Bears. There's no competition when it comes to regulation. National Review Online. Jan. 13, 2004. With Dr. Timothy Wheeler.
A World Without Guns. Be forewarned: It’s not a pretty picture. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2001. With Paul Gallant and Joanne Eisen. En français. español. português. italiano.
Prohibition Fever. National Review Online. Jan. 4, 2000. With Dr. Michael Brown. In italiano.
Communitarians, Neorepublicans, and Guns: Assessing the Case for Firearms Prohibition. 56 Maryland Law Review 438 (1997). Reply to the Communitarian Network's proposal to confiscate all firearms.
Why Good People Own Guns. Los Angeles Times. November 26, 1993. Reprinted in Paul A. Winters, ed. Crime and Criminals. Opposing Viewpoints (Greenhaven Pr., 1995). In italiano.
Guns, Germs, and Science. Critique of the medical case for gun prohibition. Delivered at the University of Oklahoma School of Public Health. Oct. 1994.
Will You Be Safer if Guns are Banned? Short piece for the International Society for Individual Liberty. Polski/Polish.
blog: Congress Bans Gun Confiscation in Emergencies, 10/2/06. New Orleans Admits that Gun Confiscations Have No Legal Basis, 9/25/05. New Orleans Guns Should Be Returned Today, 9/13/05. New Orleans Gun Confiscation is Blatantly Illegal, 9/9/05. N.O. follow-up, 9/11/05. N.O. 2d follow-up. 9/11/05.
Ready to shoot. The legal availability of handguns makes for a better-prepared police force and a safer citizenry. Baltimore Sun. Feb. 27, 2008. With Ed Nowicki.
Court, capital and handgun. Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX). Nov. 19, 2007. A look at the DC handgun ban case, showing how unpopular handgun bans are in the U.S., from 1976 to the present.
A Capital Crime. The District of Columbia’s institutionalized history of incompetence, corruption and bigotry is the very reason for its prohibition of Second Amendment rights—and for its status as the murder capital of the United States. America's 1st Freedom. Sept. 2007. In PDF.
Rearming. In a symposium on the Parker case declaring the D.C. handgun and self-defense ban unconstitutional, Kopel examines the future consequences of the decision. National Review Online, March 12, 2006.
Secret Weapon. Some 2nd Amendment lawyers help the gun-ban side. National Review Online. Sept. 22, 2003. Part 1 of a 2-part series on harmful gun rights lawsuits. The history of the Morton Grove cases, and of the NAACP's successful litigation strategy. Follow-up: Responses from Robert Kukla and Victor Quilici provide a different perspective on the case, which I should have included in the original article.
Sticking to Our Guns. Legal Times. Dec. 6, 1993. Reply to an article by Stuart Taylor in favor of handgun prohibition.
Peril or Protection? The Risks and Benefits of Handgun Prohibition. 12 St. Louis University Public Law Review 344 (1993). Excerpt reprinted in Jerry Cederblom & David W. Paulson, Critical Reasoning (Wadsworth, 2001).
The Long and the Short of the Handgun Debate. Sen. John Chafee's proposed handgun confiscation law. Washington Post. June 27, 1992
The Cheney Glock-n-Spiel. Bush's Veep-in-waiting proved he won't be seduced by mindless gun lobbying. National Review Online. July 27, 2000.
Guns and (Character) Assassination. Phony charges about fifty caliber guns. National Review Online. December 21, 2001. With Timothy Wheeler.
NPR on Alito and Machine Guns: The November 11, 2005, edition of NPR's "All Things Considered" features a segment on Judge Alito's decision in Rybar, in which Alito followed the Supreme Court's Lopez precedent to write that a federal ban on machine gun possession was not a valid exercise of the federal power to regulate interstate commerce. Guests on the program were Eugene Volokh, Kristin Rand of the Violence Policy Center, Erwin Chemerinsky of Duke Law School, and Kopel.
blog: Other Federal Appellate Judges on Machine Guns, 11/1/05.
The Return of a Legislative Legend. Debating "cop-killer" ammunition. National Review Online. Mar. 1, 2004.
Cheney's Cop-Killer Rap. If you can't handle the truth, be very afraid of W.'s running mate. National Review Online. July 31, 2000.
Obama Does Not Like Knives (or Guns). The administration moves to a regulatory ban on 80% of folding knives. June 25, 2009. 9 minutes. MP3
blog: Obama administration moves to ban 80% of folding knives, 6/15/09.
Media Violence and Media Bias
See also: Media Analysis page
Gun Rights and the Constitution: Was Heller Insignificant? An examination of last week's New York Times article, which overlooked most of the Second Amendment victories which have flowed from Heller. The New Ledger. March 26, 2009.
Did Heller matter? The New York Times says it did not, but Kopel details the Times' numerous omissions. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. April 3, 2009. MP3.
Why Reveal Who's Concealed? What possible motive could some arrogant anti-gun newspapers have for publishing the names of Right-to-Carry permit holders? America's 1st Freedom, May 2007. by Paul Gallant, with David B. Kopel and Joanne D. Eisen.
The Influence of Michael Moore. "On Point," hosted by Tom Ashbrook, WBUR radio Boston (nationally syndicated). Kopel and Jim Hightower discuss Michael Moore, beginning at 17:30 into the show. Archived for Real Player.
Gray Gun Stories. The New York Times' dishonest and mean-spirited coverage of the gun issue. National Review Online. June 9, 2003. With Paul Blackman. Important note: The Francis X. Clines item in the above story is incorrect. Correction.
Bowling Truths. Michael Moore’s mocking. National Review Online. Apr. 4, 2003. Deconstructing the dishonest documentary.
Fox 31 misleads on 'sniper' rifles. Despite news segment's claims, it takes more than mouse click to obtain firearms. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. October 27, 2002.
Shot Through the Heart. Anti-hunting propaganda on Showtime. Review of "Bang Bang, You're Dead." National Review Online. Oct. 16, 2002. With James Swan.
Dailies shoot from hip, miss. Mischaracterizations of D.C. gun-control group bespeak sloppy reporting, editing at newspapers. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. Jan. 27, 2002.
Media Bias in the Coverage of Gun Control: The Press Evaluates the Popular Culture. Chapter in the book The Gun Culture and Its Enemies (William Tonso, ed.) evaluates media bias in the 1970s.
Sorry, Wrong Number: Why Media Polls on Gun Control are so Often Unreliable. 9 Political Communication and Persuasion 69-91 (no. 2, April-June 1992). With Gary A. Mauser.
Polls: Anti-gun Propaganda. Certain pollsters who support repressive gun laws claim to have found increased public support for such laws. Are such polls accurate? Or are they typical of the manipulation of data which has long been the practice of pro-control pollsters? The American Guardian. 1997.
Massaging the Medium: Analyzing and Responding to Media Violence without Harming the First Amendment. 4 Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy 17 (1995).
Round Table Discussion: Violence in the Media. David Kopel, Eleanor Acheson (Asst. U.S. Atty. Genl. for Policy Development), Charles W. Guswelle (Kansas City Star), and others. University of Kansas Law School symposium.
Dead Ringers. When it comes to Olympic shooting sports, TV is in blackout mode. National Review Online Weekend, Sept. 23-24, 2000.
Juvenile Justice, Gun Safety, and other Children's Issues
See also: Criminal Justice page
Subtopics: Schools. Columbine. Gun Safety/Consumer Products/Storage/Lock Laws/"Smart" Guns. Federal Legislation. Denver Laws.
blog: D.C. City Council's False "Findings" of Facts on Firearms. Incorrect claims about accidents involving young males, 7/23/08.
Guns, Gangs, and Preschools: Moving Beyond Conventional Solutions to Confront Juvenile Violence, 1 Barry Law Review 63 (2000).
Crime: The Inner City Crisis. The crime disaster in urban America, and how politicians use gun control to evade the difficulties of addressing the causes of poverty, alienation, and hopelessness.
Gun Play: What Kids Don't Know about Guns Can Kill Them. Reason. July 1993. Reprinted in Gun Control. Opposing Viewpoints (Greenhaven Pr., 1997).
Education Secretary Arne Duncan. What his record as Superintendant of Chicago public schools indicates he might do on as Secretary of Education to promote restrictions of Second Amendment rights. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Feb. 20, 2009. MP3.
Shooter's Purchase of Handguns Raises Questions About Gun Control Laws. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. April 19, 2007. Transcript. MP3.
One of the Worst Mass Killings in Modern American History. iVoices podcast interview with Kopel. April 19, 2007. Run time 18:50. MP3.
The Resistance. Teaching common-sense school protection. National Review Online, Oct. 10, 2006.
Only press itself can stop copycats. Killers, suicides thrive on publicity given those who perpetrated earlier crimes. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, Sept. 23, 2006.
Sure, Blame the Gun. The Santee murders. National Review Online. Mar. 9, 2001. With Ari Armstrong. Reprinted in School Shootings. At Issue (Greenhaven Press, 2002).
Don't Let Schools off the Hook. The dos and don'ts of preventing juvenile violence. National Review Online. July 12, 2000. With Dr. Helen Smith, forensic psychologist.
Colorado Senate Rejects Gun Legislation. National Review Online, Apr. 12, 2000. Colorado Senate nixes ban on possession of guns by law-abiding adults at universities and schools.
Censorship at Schools
In the case of Newsom v. Albermarle, a middle school threatened to punish a student for wearing an NRA shooting sports camp t-shirt. Independence Institute amicus brief for the Fourth Circuit Court of appeals argues that shooting sports are wholesome and promote good character, and that speech promoting shooting sports cannot rationally be censored in a public school. The Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of the student.
Newsom Wins One. A First and Second victory. National Review Online. Jan. 8, 2004. Fourth Circuit rules that school cannot prohibit student from wearing NRA Shooting Sports Camp t-shirt.
Wisconsin Diversifies. The saga of the Mountaineer. National Review Online. Sept. 5, 2002. University of Wisconsin administrators attempt to prohibit the West Virginia "Mountaineer" mascot from carrying his musket at a football game.
blog: Montclair, N.J., school promotes gun prohibition, blocks pro-rights speech, 5/11/02. (The school board later relented.)
Armed Teachers
Pretend "Gun-free" School Zones: A Deadly Legal Fiction. 42 Connecticut Law Review (no. 1, 2009). PDF.
Campus Conceal Carry Laws. What's the deal with conceal carry laws as it pertains to college campuses? Jon Caldara sits down with 2nd amendment expert Dave Kopel to talk about the current state of conceal carry on campus in Colorado, and how it compares to Utah, where students are allowed to carry. Run Time:11:52. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Mar. 6, 2009. MP3.
"Gun-Free Zones." Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2007. The murders at Virginia Tech University.
Make Schools Safe for Kids, not Criminals. Arming teachers is the most realistic way to reduce school shootings. iVoices.org podcast. Oct. 5, 2006. MP3.
blog: Arming teachers to stop school killers, 10/6/06.
Follow the Leader. Israel and Thailand set an example by arming teachers. Russia should follow, to prevent more hostage-taking in schools. National Review Online. Sept. 3, 2004.
When Heroes Are Outlawed: How Joel Myrick Saved Lives by Breaking the Law. By Ari Armstrong. How the Gun Free School Zones law makes schools safe for mass murderers.
blog: Armed Israeli teacher stops terrorist attack on high school, 5/29/02.
Zero Tolerance
Peter Boyles Show. The case of Marie Morrow, the Douglas County high school student being persecuted for having some drill rifle props in her automobile. Also, the Wisconsin teacher being persecuted for having a Facebook picture in which she is holding a firearm. Feb. 10, 2009. MP3.
Zero Good Sense. Zero tolerance. National Review Online. June 6, 2001. With Paul Gallant and Joanne Eisen. In italiano.
Gunning for the Kiddies. What kind of a “climate” has taken hold of society? National Review Online. Sept. 22, 2000. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.
blog: Children use "finger guns," then school interrogates them about parental gun ownership, 5/13/02.
Getting Columbine Right. More gun control wouldn't have stopped this tragedy. You're wrong, Al. National Review Online. Oct. 12, 2000.
Who's Responsible For Columbine? National Review Online. May 25, 2000.
What If We Had Taken Columbine Seriously? The political discourse since the killings last year has been foolish, escapist, and cowardly. The Weekly Standard, April 24, 2000. Cover story. Italiano: E se avessimo preso la Columbine seriamente?
The Police Stood Idle. New York Post. April 20, 2000. Columbine.
School Safety. New York Post. April 20, 2000 (with Linda Gorman). (Also in National Review Online, May 8, 2000.)
Gun-Control Won't Stop the Madness. 1999. By Dr. Paul Gallant and Dr. Joanne Eisen.
Clinton Targets Guns Again: President's Politicking Won't Achieve Goal. Rocky Mountain News. May 2, 1999.
The Attack on Civil Liberties. Why the Columbine High murders should not be exploited to attack the First Amendment or the Second Amendment. By Ari Armstrong. April 30, 1999.
Making Schools Safe for Criminals. Gun control laws ensured that the teachers and students at Columbine High School would be defenseless. Denver Post, April 23, 1999. By Linda Gorman.
A Fighting Chance. Crime victims left helpless by anti-gun laws, and the gun control mentality. April 21, 1999. By Richard Griffiths.
blog: Columbine cover-up, 3/9/02.
*Also see our Special Report on the Columbine High School tragedy.
Gun Safety/Consumer Products/Storage/Lock Laws/"Smart" Guns
What Next for D.C.'s Gun Laws. Congress should intervene to protect the Second Amendment. Wall Street Journal. August 8, 2008. With Robert A. Levy.
Danger evident in imposing mandatory gun storage laws. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 8, 2006.
"Smart Guns": New Jersey's new "smart gun" law proves that a gun ban by any other name still has the same devastating results. America's 1st Freedom, March 2003.
Smart Guns/Foolish Legislators, 34 Connecticut Law Review 157 (2001). With Cynthia Leonardatos and Paul Blackman.
Treating Guns Like Consumer Products. 148 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1701 (2000). Includes a detailed comparison of gun regulation to the regulation of automobiles and alcohol.
Taking It to the Streets. Why treating guns like cars might not be such a bad idea. Reason. November 1999.
Who is Al Gore Kidding? On guns and the National Zoo, Gore is either dishonest or stupid. National Review Online. Apr. 27, 2000.
Are Gun Locks Like Aspirin Caps? National Review Online. Mar. 29, 2000.
Dangers of Mandatory Gun Locks. National Review Online. Mar. 22, 2000. In italiano.
The Hidden Agenda Behind Gun Storage Laws. As demonstrated in Canada and Great Britain, such laws are used to make home defense impossible. The American Guardian. 1997
Loaded Guns Can be Good for Kids. Cato Institute. June 3, 1999. With Eugene Volokh. Español. Italiano.
Safe Storage is Unsafe Regulation (mandatory gun locks). By Linda Gorman.
Mandatory Gun Safety Classes Could Reduce Citizen's Safety. Commerce City Beacon. July 3, 1991.
blog: California gun lock law leads directly to murder of Carpenter family children, 6/2/02.
Guns vs. Teddy Bears. There's no competition when it comes to regulation. National Review Online. Jan. 13, 2004. With Dr. Timothy Wheeler.
Unfair and Unconstitutional: The New Federal Gun Control and Juvenile Crime Proposals. Covers the heavily-discussed issues from Senate Bill 254 (gun shows, juvenile gun possession) and many unknown provisions (including wiretapping expansion, forfeiture expansion, and others). With James Winchester.
The Hill's Hidden Crime Agenda. Cato Institute. Washington Times. June 15, 1999.
Gun Control Bill Defeated For Wrong Reasons. By William Ruefle and J. Mitchell Miller.
Kopel's April 1997 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Criminal Street Gangs. Includes material about gun control, RICO, bullet-resistant vests, conspiracy statues, federalization of criminal law, and more.
What Goes Around... The Blue Press. 1997. Misdemeanor domestic violence gun ban, and its application to police and the military.
Children and Guns: Sensible Solutions. Independence Institute Issue Paper. 1993.
Squirt Gun Bans Won’t Stop Violent Crime: Denver’s "Mr. Wilson laws" are Empty Shells. Analyzes 1993 Denver laws against weapons possession by juveniles. Independence Institute Issue Paper. 1993.
Spot the Crimes. Donald DeKieffer examines Denver's badly-written juvenile gun ordinance.
Second Amendment, Legal History, and Cases
Subtopics: Post-Heller. Chicago Handgun Ban cases. Heller/Parker case. Supreme Court. Emerson case. Legal History. State Constitutions and cases. More on the Second Amendment.
McDonald explained. Kopel on "Devil's Advocate with Jon Caldara." Colorado Public Television, channel 12, Denver. July 9, 2010. YouTube: part 1, part 2, part 3. Half-hour.
*****Kopel's amicus brief in the Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago. (The link takes you to the abstract page. From there, click, the "Download" button, then click the location from which you would like to download.) Cited by Justice Alito's plurality opinion (footnote 2), and by Justice Stevens' dissent (twice).
Wins of Change. Special digital edition of America's 1st Freedom, July 2010. Long article by Kopel explaining the Supreme Court opinions in McDonald.
Mike Rosen show. Discussion of McDonald, Kagan nomination, other Supreme Court issues. One hour. 850 KOA, Denver. June 29, 2010.
NRA News, June 28, 2010. Last segment of the show. 28 minutes.
Podcast on
McDonald. iVoices.org. June 28, 2010.
MP3.
Kopel on Denver’s Caplis & Silverman radio show, KHOW. 1st hour of the show, June 28, 2010. Show archive.
Incorporating the Second Amendment. Cato Institute Daily Podcast. June 22, 2010.
Waiting for McDonald. And the impending Kagan hearings. NRA News. June 21, 2010. Last segment on the show, 22 minutes.
NRA Makes its Case. The oral argument in McDonald v. Chicago. America's 1st Freedom, May 2010.
Analysis of the McDonald Oral Argument. Downrange TV with Michael Bane. 34 minutes. Mar. 2, 2009.
The Privileges or Immunities Clause and what it means for the Second Amendment. Kopel interviews the Cato Institute's Ilya Shapiro about his new law review article. 29 minutes. Feb. 16, 2010. MP3.
The Next Supreme Decision: Showdown Over Chicago. The NRA's brief in McDonald v. Chicago. America's 1st Freedom. Feb. 2010.
Stephen Halbrook Christmas Special. Kopel interviews Stephen Halbrook, the leading legal defender of the Second Amendment over the last three decades. Dec. 17, 2009. 53 minutes. MP3.
A Very Gura Christmas. Kopel interviews the young jedi Alan Gura about McDonald v. Chicago. Dec. 7, 2009. 50 minutes. MP3.
Jon Caldara and Kopel discuss the Independence Institute's Supreme Court amicus brief in McDonald v. Chicago. Dec. 1, 2009. Podcast.
Josh Blackman interviews Kopel about the Supreme Court brief. Nov. 23, 2009. Podcast.
McDonald v. Chicago: Is the 2nd Amendment Incorporated in the 14th Amendment? An explanation of the basic constitutional issues in the case. Nov. 18, 2009. MP3.
The Second Amendment Goes to the Supreme Court Again. Kopel explains McDonald v. Chicago to Jon Caldara. Oct. 5, 2009. 11:04.
The Second Amendment in the Supreme Court. Kopel speaks to the Global General Gathering of the Triple 9 Society, and explains the upcoming Supreme Court case on whether the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment applicable to state and local governments. Sept. 6, 2009. 86 minutes, video. Watch. Download mp4.
What good is an individual right if your state won't enforce it? Analysis of the 7th Circuit's decision holding that the Second Amendment does not limit state or local governments. America's 1st Freedom. August 2009.
7th Circuit Court of Appeals Handgun Ruling. In an interview with Jon Caldara, Kopel explains the new decision in NRA v. Chicago. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. June 4, 2009. 12 minutes. MP3.
Amicus brief in the Chicago handgun ban cases. Filed in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Feb. 5, 2009.
Podcast on the Independence Institute amicus brief in the Chicago handgun ban case. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Feb. 13, 2009. MP3.
The lawsuits against the Chicago handgun ban. Dave explains to Independence Institute President Jon Caldara the issue of whether the Second Amendment is incorporated against state and local governments. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Feb. 6, 2009. MP3.
Seventh Circuit Says Gun Registration is OK. The Volokh Conspiracy. Aug. 20, 2009.
Second Circuit rules in favor of firearms dealers on procedural due process. The Volokh Conspiracy. Aug. 17, 2009.
Tenth Circuit split on gun ban for misdemeanants. The Volokh Conspiracy. Aug. 2, 2009.
The State of Heller. Does the Second Amendment apply to state and local governments? Ongoing cases may soon give the Supreme Court an opportunity to issue a definitive decision on this very important question. Discussion of the 9th Circuit's new decision in Nordyke v. King, plus other cases involving incorporation. America's 1st Freedom. June 2009. PDF.
9th Circuit's Ruling Applies 2nd Amendment to States. Kopel explains Nordyke v. King, in which the Ninth Circuit held that the 2d Amendment is incorporated by the 14th. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. April 20, 2009. MP3.
Does the Heller Ruling Apply at the State and Local Level? Three different cases could give the Supreme Court an opportunity to decide: the Chicago handgun ban; Alameda County, California, gun show ban; and the New York nunchaku ban. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. 11:24. April 10, 2009. MP3.
Did Heller matter? The New York Times says it did not, but Kopel details the Times' numerous omissions. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. April 3, 2009. MP3.
Gun Rights and the Constitution: Was Heller Insignificant? An examination of last week's New York Times article, which overlooked most of the Second Amendment victories which have flowed from Heller. The New Ledger. March 26, 2009.
Unraveling Judicial Restraint: Guns, Abortion, and the Faux Conservatism of J. Harvie Wilkinson, III. 25 Journal of Law & Politics 1 (University of Virginia) (2009). Critique of 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Wilkinson's Virginia Law Review article asserting the D.C. v. Heller is a 21st century version of Roe v. Wade. With Nelson Lund.
What Next for D.C.'s Gun Laws. Congress should intervene to protect the Second Amendment. Wall Street Journal. August 8, 2008. With Robert A. Levy.
After Heller: The New American Debate on Guns. Weblog debate about the Heller case and its implications. Participants are Bob Levy of the Cato Institute, Kopel, Dennis Henigan of the Brady Campaign, and Erwin Chemerinsky. Kopel's entries are: "The Right to Bear Arms and 'Sensible' Gun Laws"; "Slope Still Slippery"; "More on 'The' and Pre-existing Rights"; "One Man's 'Sensible' is Another Man's 'Extreme'"; "What Did They Mean in Massachusetts?"; "The NRA and the Supreme Court"; and "In Scalia's Defense". Cato Unbound. July 2008.
Heller's Kitchen. How the Heller decision may affect New York City gun laws. New York Sun, June 30, 2008.
The First Dominos Fall: Morton Grove and Wilmette Handgun Bans. The Volokh Conspiracy weblog, June 29, 2008.
Heller is just the beginning of expanding judicial protection of the right to arms. ReasonOnline, June 27, 2008.
Heller/Parker Case
Amicus brief of the Independence Institute, the International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Association, and many other law enforcement organizations and leaders in District of Columbia v. Heller. PDF.
The Natural Right of Self-defense: Heller's Lesson for the World. Symposium issue on the Heller case. 59 Syracuse Law Review (2009).
Freedom Unbound! In striking down the D.C. gun ban, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Second Amendment protects an individual right of all Americans. America's 1st Freedom. Aug. 2008.
Supreme Court Victory: Now What? Independent Thinking television show. Host Jon Caldara interviews Kopel and the head of Colorado's Million Mom March. July 12, 2008. 27 minutes.
Miller, Colt .45s and Natural Law. The Heller decision provides constitutional protection for what it recognizes as the natural right of self-defense. The decision also show DC's ban on all self-loading guns to be unconstitutional. Scotusblog, June 27, 2008.
Conservative Activists Key to DC Handgun Decision. Human
Events. June 27, 2008. Constitution is Big Winner in D.C. Gun Case. Kopel's analysis of the Heller decision. Pajamas Media. June 26, 2008.
Kopel on the Mike Rosen Show, 850 KOA Denver. June 27, 2008. Hour 1. Hour 2.
Kopel on Downrange Radio. 24 minutes on the Heller decision. June 27, 2008.
Supco Ruling a Big Victory, but Many Fights Ahead. West Virginia Outdoor News. June 27, 2008. Audio. Article about the interview. 26 minutes.
Kopel on the Jon Caldara Show, 850 KOA Denver. June 26, 2008. Half hour.
iVoices.org podcast on the Heller decision. June 26, 2008. 14 minutes.
Kopel interviewed on Caplis & Silverman radio show, KHOW Denver, about Heller. June 26, 2008. (Click on the 3 p.m. hour archive.)
Ringside at the Supreme Court. Report on the Heller oral argument. America's 1st Freedom. June 2008. In PDF.
What are the anti's thinking? America's 1st Freedom. April 2008. Analysis of the anti-Second Amendment amicus briefs in District of Columbia v. Heller. PDF.
Oral argument in DC v. Heller. The view from the counsel table. Volokh Conspiracy weblog. Mar. 31, 2008.
iVoices.org interview with Kopel, about the oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller. March 27, 2008. MP3. 15:01.
Press conference after the oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller. Mar. 18, 2008. C-Span. The first half of the press conference is Mayor Fenty and other D.C. spokespersons. Kopel appears in the background at about 11:24, and speaks from about 18:20 to 19:33. C-Span video, Kopel at 21:30. MP3 of the pro-Heller portion.
NRA News interview on the Supreme Court steps, after oral argument in Heller. Mar. 18, 2008. YouTube.
Kopel telephone interview for Down Range TV, discussing the day's oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller. Mar. 18, 2008. MP3.
American Constitution Society panel on DC v. Heller. Moderated by Dahlia Lithwick of Slate, the panel features a discussion with John Payne (formerly of the D.C. Corporation Counsel's office; attorney of record on the Brady amicus brief, and currently head of the NAACP LDF), Carl Bogus (Prof. of Law at Roger Williams, and lead author on a pro-DC amicus brief of some historians) and Dave Kopel. The debate was held at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C.; on March 13, 2008. The video and audio are available here. C-Span video.
Nelson Lund explains the Second Amendment. Kopel interviews George Mason Law Professor Nelson Lund, author of the Second Amendment Foundation brief in DC v. Heller. Lund explicates the grammar and vocabulary of the Second Amendment. Mar. 4, 2008. MP3.
Ready to shoot. The legal availability of handguns makes for a better-prepared police force and a safer citizenry. Baltimore Sun. Feb. 27, 2008. With Ed Nowicki.
Academics for the Second Amendment brief in the Supreme Court. Law professor Joe Olson is interviewed by Dave Kopel, regarding the brief that A2A wrote regarding the drafting and original meaning of the Second Amendment. Feb. 21, 2008. 44 minute podcast. MP3.
Kopel discusses the Independence Institute/Law Enforcement brief in DC v. Heller, on the Amy Oliver Show. Part 1. Part 2.
Independence Institute brief in DC v. Heller. iVoices podcast, Feb. 11, 2008.
The Supreme Decision. Analysis of the D.C. v. Heller case. America's 1st Freedom. Jan. 2008. PDF.
DC's Gun Ban, Round 2. Analysis of the D.C. Circuit Court's denial of the city's petition for rehearing en banc. America's First Freedom. July 2007. In PDF.
D.C. gun ban unconstitutional? Dave Kopel discusses the Parker decision, which declared that D.C.'s ban on handguns and ban on self-defense with any gun is unconstitutional. iVoices podcast. Run time 14:40. MP3. April 16, 2007. (Taped on April 13.)
Blog: Kmiec v. Kmiec on Heller, 1/6/09. The First Dominos Fall: Morton Grove & Wilmette Handgun Bans, 6/29/08. What is the right protected in the Heller dissent? 6/28/08. Larry Tribe's flip-flop in DC v. Heller, 3/4/08. Military Brief (including full text of Maryland Governor Herbert L. O'Conor's 1942 radio address calling for Maryland Minutemen to defend the state), 2/13/08. District Attorneys, the ABA, and precedent in DC v. Heller, 2/13/08. Goldwater vs. the Solicitor General, in DC v. Heller, 2/12/08. State-level Battle of the Attorneys General in DC v. Heller, 2/12/08. Battle of the Attorneys General in DC v. Heller, 2/11/08. Historical briefs in DC v. Heller, 2/11/08. Law Enforcement Brief in DC v. Heller, 2/11/08. Respondent's Brief in DC v. Heller, 2/7/08. NRA brief in DC v. Heller, 2/7/08. Claremont Institute Empirical Brief in DC v. Heller, 2/7/08. DC v. Heller, amicus brief on racial issues, 2/8/08. Congressional Brief in DC v. Heller, 2/8/08. LGBT brief in DC v. Heller, 2/9/08. The English Roots of the Right Arms. DC v. Heller brief, 2/9/08. Women's Rights Brief in DC v. Heller, 2/9/08. Nelson Lund brief in DC v. Heller, 2/10/08. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership brief in DC v. Heller, 2/10/08. The "Failed State" Brief in DC v. Heller, 2/10/08. Amicus Briefs for Petitioner in D.C. v. Heller, 1/14/08.
***Kopel oral testimony on Kagan nomination. Starts at 41:09. YouTube of Kopel only, including Q&A with Senators Sessions and Hatch. Audio only. MP3 download.
Written testimony on Elena Kagan nomination. Co-authored with Stephen Halbrook.
Kopel on NRA's The Daily News, with Ginny Simone. July 1, 2010. Starting at 1:52. 18 minutes.
Sotomayor targets guns now. Justice's dissent contradicts confirmation testimony. Washington Times, June 29, 2010.
Kopel Senate briefing on Kagan and McDonald. U.S. Senate Second Amendment Task Force. June 21, 2010. Link to the 22 minute video, and links to presentations by Stephen Halbrook and Hans Von Spakovsky. YouTube.
What Miller Meant. Kopel interviews Michael O'Shea about the history and multiple meanings of United States v. Miller. 65 minutes. Feb. 16, 2010. MP3.
Kopel's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, regarding the Second Amendment record of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Written testimony in PDF (much longer than the oral testimony). Video of Kopel's testimony to the Committee, July 16, 2009, C-Span. Other C-Span video, Kopel at 38:58.
A Sotomayor Critic Weighs In. Kopel and Christian Science Monitor reporter Todd Zwillich discuss the Sotomayor nomination. WNYC, "The Takeaway." July 15, 2009. Approx. 14 minutes.
blog: Sotomayor vs. the Second Amendment, Part II, 6/2/2009. Highly dubious claim against Sotomayor, 5/26/09. Sonia Sotomayor vs. the Second Amendment, 5/26/09.
Sonia Sotomayor. Kopel interviewed by Amy Oliver on KFKA radio. May 27, 2009. MP3.
A (Really) Brief History of the Collective Right to Keep and Bear Arms. All of the Supreme Court's 19th century cases involving the Second Amendment recognize a broad right for all law-abiding citizens, not a "collective" or militia-only right. America's 1st Freedom. Mar. 2008. PDF.
Explaining Eisentrager. The Second Amendment is for individual gun owners. National Review Online. April 20, 2004. Español.
Rights During War. In 1864, the U.S. Army court-martialed an Indiana civilian and sentenced him to death. What does this case teach us about the Second Amendment and the limits of presidential powers? Liberty magazine, April 2004.
Supreme Court Gun Cases: Two Centuries of Rights Revealed. Book by David B. Kopel, Alan Korwin, and Stephen P. Halbrook. Book review in WorldNet Daily.
The Second Amendment Before the Supreme Court. United States v. Miller and all preceding cases. Liberty. Dec. 2003.
No Firearms Exception to the Fourth Amendment. From the "Cultural Revolutions" sections of Chronicles magazine. August 2000, pp. 7-8.
The Supreme Court's Thirty-five Other Gun Cases. 18 St. Louis University Public Law Review 99 (1999).
The Sounds of the Supremes: A Reply to Professor Yassky. Part of an exchange sparked by the previous article. 18 St. Louis U. Pub. L. Rev. 203 (1999).
Guns in Court. (The Miller case). National Review Online. May 30, 2001.
Warren Burger and the Second Amendment. Kopel responds to ex-Chief Justice Burger's article on the Second Amendment in Parade magazine.
Miller versus Texas: Police Violence, Race Relations, Capital Punishment, and Gun-toting in Texas in the Nineteenth Century—and Today. 9 Journal of Law and Policy 737 (2001). With Cynthia Leonardatos and Stephen P. Halbrook.
Presser v. Illinois. Analysis of the 1886 case.
Dread the Dred Scott Reference. Don’t toss this case around unless you know what you're talking about. National Review Online. Dec. 14, 2000.
Blog: Second Amendment Tea Leaves, 10/29/05 (Corrigan, Luttig, Alito). Miers on the RKBA, 10/3/05. Gun Case in the Supreme Court; Sporting Clays Case in Virginia, 11/4/04.
Emerson Case
A Right of the People: The Meaning of the Emerson Decision. National Review Online. Oct. 25, 2001.
Independence Institute amicus brief in United States v. Emerson. (Second Amendment case before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.)
Federalist 46. "The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared," by James Madison. Kopel examines how well Madison's expectations turned out in practice, and Madison's praise for the American "advantage of being armed." Constituting America, June 30, 2010.
The Right to Arms in the Living Constitution. 2009 Cardozo Law Review de Novo 99.
The Keystone of the Second Amendment: The Quakers, the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the Questionable Scholarship of Nathan Kozuskanich. 19 Widener Law Journal 277 (2010). With Clayton Cramer.
Credentials are No Substitute for Accuracy: Nathan Kozuskanich, Stephen Halbrook and the Role of the Historian. 19 Widener Law Journal 343 (2010). With Clayton Cramer.
Malcolm in the Middle. Falling victim to bogus critics. National Review Online. Sept. 16, 2002. Has Joyce Malcolm's research on the history of English gun rights been "discredited"?
An Army of One. (Attorneys General who supported the Second Amendment). National Review Online. May 29, 2001.
The Self-Defense Cases: How the United States Supreme Court Confronted a Hanging Judge in the Nineteenth Century and Taught Some Lessons for Jurisprudence in the Twenty-first. 27 American Journal of Criminal Law 293 (2000).
Check the Footnotes. Skip Bellesiles. Read Halbrook. NRO Weekend, January 13-14, 2001. With Clayton Cramer. Book review of Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876, by Stephen P. Halbrook
The Second Amendment in the Nineteenth Century. Except for one judge in Arkansas, every court or scholarly commentator who wrote about the Second Amendment in the 19th century believed that the Amendment guaranteed an individual right. 1998 BYU Law Review 1359
Our Second Amendment: The Original Perspective. St. George Tucker. The American Guardian. July 1998.
Tench Coxe and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in the Early Republic. 7 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 347 (1999). With Stephen Halbrook.
Faith of Our Fathers. Garry Wills translates the Second Amendment into Latin, in order to evade its plain meaning in English. National Review Online. Mar. 16, 2001.
blog: St. George Tucker, Saul Cornell, & Justice Stevens, 1/22/08. DC v. Heller: Nathan Kozuskanich's selective reading of American History, 3/9/08. Albion Tourgee and the Second Amendment, 12/4/06. St. George Tucker vs. Saul Cornell on the Second Amendment, 10/13/06.
What's the Difference between a "Living Constitution" and a Dead Document? The "living Constitution" theory of interpretation should lead to strong protection for a vital Second Amendment. America's 1st Freedom. September 2009
The Second Amendment in the Tenth Circuit: Three Decades of (Mostly) Harmless Error. 86 Denver University Law Review 901 (2009). In the annual Tenth Circuit Survey. PDF.
In Liberty's Two Arms. Both clauses of the Second Amendment protect gun rights. Legal Times, Jan. 14, 2008. Applying Justice Stephen Breyer's book "Active Liberty" to the Second Amendment. PDF. HTML.
The Silveira Threat. How long will the Second Amendment live? National Review Online. Sept. 23, 2003. Part 2 of a 2-part series on harmful gun rights lawsuits.
Secret Weapon. Some 2nd Amendment lawyers help the gun-ban side. National Review Online. Sept. 22, 2003. Part 1 of a 2-part series on harmful gun rights lawsuits. The history of the Morton Grove cases, and of the NAACP's successful litigation strategy. Follow-up: Responses from Robert Kukla and Victor Quilici provide a different perspective on the case, which I should have included in the original article.
Lindh’s Rights. Second Amendment does not apply. National Review Online. May 27, 2002.
Book Reviews: A Nation of Cowards and The Origin of the Second Amendment. Ideas on Liberty, Mar. 2002.
Second Amendment Jurisprudence. Sanford Levinson (Professor of law and government at the University of Texas) and Dave Kopel discuss the Second Amendment on WBEZ radio, Chicago. July 13, 2001. One-hour program in RealAudio.
Right to Bear (Some) Arms. National Review Online. June 7, 2001.
Second Amendment: Kopel Defends Individualist View. Coverage of Kopel's debate with Denver University Law Professor Robert Hardaway and Ruchi Bhowmik of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence. By Ari Armstrong. Colorado Freedom Report. May 8, 2000
Comprehensive Bibliography of the Second Amendment in Law Reviews. 11 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy 1 (1999). Includes hypertext links to many articles.
Big Brother and the Second Amendment. Bill Tonso discusses the Clinton/Reno theory that the Second Amendment only protects the government.
State Constitutions and State Court Cases
What State Constitutions Teach about the Second Amendment, 29 Northern Kentucky Law Review 845 (2002). Cited in Mosby v. Devine, 851 A.2d 1031, 1040 (R.I. 2004), majority opinion by Chief Justice Williams; State v. Hamdan, 264 Wis.2d 433, 467 n. 23, 665 N.W.2d 785, 802 n. 23 (Wisc. 2003), majority opinion by Justice David T. Prosser.
A Tale of Three Cities: The Right to Bear Arms in State Supreme Courts. Examines state court decisions in Colorado, Oregon, Ohio which upheld bans on so-called "assault weapons." 68 Temple Law Review 1177 (1995), with Clayton Cramer and Scott Hattrup.
Guns in the Dock. Liberty. Feb. 2003. Examines Nunn v. State and Salina v. Blaksley, two important 19th century cases involving the Second Amendment.
blog: Indiana Court Vindicates Right to Self-Defense, 6/23/05. W.V. Court Vindicates Self-Defense Right for Employees, 6/11/05.
Subtopics: American history. Bellesiles fraud. Philosophy.
See also: Pages on History and on International/foreign gun issues.
blog: George Mason, 4/1/06.
The Religious Roots of the American Revolution and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 17 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy 167 (2005).
Brothers In Arms. How civil rights flowed from a rifle barrel. Armed black resistance to race riots in the 20th century. Reason.com, Feb. 24, 2005.
The Klan's Favorite Law: Gun control in the postwar South. Reason.com, Feb. 15, 2005.
Don’t Mess with (Armed) Texans. The real lesson of the Alamo. National Review Online. April 8, 2004.
America's Fascination with Firearms. The rigors of the country's frontier led to the proliferation of firearms and a deeply ingrained pro-gun culture. The World & I magazine, Oct. 2003.
A Collaborative Effort. Book review of: The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America’s First Military Victory, by Robert V. Remini. Chronicles magazine, July 2000.
Guns of Our Freedom: Celebrate Independence Day with a few rounds. National Review Online. July 1, 2000. In italiano.
Thomas Jefferson Forever. Chronicles. Celebrates the great Founder, and examines his statements about arms in a free society. In italiano.
Blog: Condoleeza Rice and the Second Amendment, 11/19/04.
Disarming Errors. Book review of Michael Bellesiles' "Arming America." National Review, print edition. Oct. 9, 2000. With Clayton Cramer. This was the first printed article to accuse Bellesiles of fraud.
blog: New developments in Bellesiles' record of lies, 4/10/02. The Poulshock fraud in 1966 and the contrasts with the publisher's handling of the fraudulent Bellesiles book, 3/15/02. Bellesiles gets a new grant, 3/5/02 (the grant was later rescinded).
(See also the articles on Ancient Greece, Rome, and China.)
Commentary on the Talmud and self-defense. Sh'ma (magazine on Jewish ethics). Nov. 2009, page 16.
The Sword & the Tome. Some quotes about self-defense and the right to arms, from the ancient Hebrews up to the present. America's 1st Freedom. Feb. 2009. PDF.
Is the Best Defense a Good Book? Refutes the claim of pacifist-aggressives that the New Testament mandates pacifism. America's 1st Freedom, February 2007. PDF.
The Catholic Second Amendment, 29 Hamline Law Review 519 (2006).
The Scottish and English Religious Roots of the American Right to Arms: Buchanan, Rutherford, Locke, Sidney, and the Duty to Overthrow Tyranny, 12 Bridges 291 (nos. 3/4, Fall/Winter 2005).
Second Amendment Symposium, George Mason University School of Law, Sept. 24, 2005. The English religious roots of the Second Amendment right to resist tyranny. Windows Media hi low. QuickTime hi low.
Two Cheers for Violence. Pacifists often claim that violence only begets violence. They are wrong. Liberty. Sept. 2004.
God, Man, and Tyrants. John of Salisbury and the Bestselling Book of the Twelfth Century. Liberty. May 2004.
Self-Defense: Rights and Coerced Risk-acceptance. Philosophy Professor Samuel Wheeler examines the morality of self-defense.
Arms as Insurance. University of Connecticut Professor Samuel Wheeler explores the ethical case for owning firearms as insurance against unjust attack.
Bodin, Becarria, and Bastiat. Diverse views on arms and the use of force in society from important philosophers: a French absolutist, the Italian father of criminology, and a French liberal. En italiano. Gun Control Laws and Proposals
Subtopics: U.S., Colorado, Other States, and Local Gun Laws. Ballistic "Fingerprinting". "Buybacks". Gun Rationing/"One gun a month". Gun Shows. National Instant Check System. Registration of Guns and Gun Owners. Waiting Periods.
Is Gun Control Back? Did it ever Go Away? On-line debate between Dave Kopel and Christopher Lockwood, the U.S. editor of The Economist. Los Angeles Times, April 21-25, 2007. April 23: the Virginia Tech murders. April 24: the politics of gun control. April 25: international issues. April 26: myths about guns. April 27: Gun solutions. How would you change America's gun laws?
U.S., Colorado, Montana, Other States, and Local Gun Laws
The Montana Firearms Freedom Act. In an interview with Amy Oliver, Kopel explains the new Montana law which attempts to exempt guns which are made and sold intra-state from the application of federal gun laws which were enacted under the federal power over interstate commerce. KFKA radio. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. June 4, 2009. 16 minutes. MP3.
Poison Pill. When banning guns gets tough, finding ways to ban gun owners can accomplish the same end. Take Nassau County, N.Y., for example. America's 1st Freedom. Dec. 2008.
Senate Bill 34: Concealed Carry in Colorado. Podcast Run Time: 00:12:48. MP3. April 6, 2007. What will Senate Bill 34 mean for the people of Colorado. Find out from the Director of the Second Amendment Project Dave Kopel.
Foreword to Gun Laws of Montana (2003).
Limited Preemption of Firearms Laws: A Good Step for Civil Rights." Independence Institute Issue Backgrounder. Mar. 11, 2003.
How Strict are U.S., Colorado, and Local Gun Control Laws? Issue Paper details how pervasive and severe existing gun control laws already are. The paper details the 20 weapons law violations perpetrated by the Columbine murderers, and their gun suppliers. The Paper also examines current laws regarding gun shows, and explains that there is no "loophole" in current laws regarding gun shows.
Preempting local anti-gun laws. Independence Institute Issue Backgrounder. 1999.
To Temper Brady Act, Gun Devotees Should Nationalize, Refine It. Human Events. Jan. 1995. Suggestions for Congressional reform of gun laws.
Blog: Ohio Preempts All Local Gun Controls, 12/12/06. Newark Airport sued for abuse of person lawfully transporting a firearm, 2/27/06. Federal year in review, 2005, 1/3/06. Is it Illegal for David Letterman to Own a Gun? 12/22/05. Florida's New Self-Defense Law, 5/19/05. Illinois Limits Gun Ban Enforcement, 11/17/04.
Ballistic Imaging: Not Ready for Prime Time. National Center for Policy Analysis. Policy backgrounder. April 30, 2003. With Sterling Burnett.
Not So Fast. Ballistic fingerprinting. National Review Online. Oct. 23, 2002. With Paul H. Blackman.
The Madness of Gun Buybacks. National Review Online, May 15, 2000.
Gun Rationing/"One gun a month"
What's that Smell? Nearly everyone has heard of the corruption-plagued organization ACORN. Yet many gun owners are unaware of the organization’s strong anti-gun activities and ties. America's 1st Freedom, Dec. 2009.
Eating Away at the Fabric of Freedom. Gun rationing laws lay the foundation for a total firearms ban. America's 1st Freedom, July 2003. PDF.
Will Gun Shows Become Extinct? Anti-gun billionaires Michael Bloomberg and George Soros aim to take a huge bite out of the Second Amendment. America's 1st Freedom. July 2010.
Bloomberg's aggressive stance against guns. Denver Post, April 24, 2010. The Bloomberg "gun show" bill is mostly about issues other than background checks at gun shows.
Gun show Gun registration is not the answer. Charleston Gazette. Nov. 10, 2002.
Gun Games. Truth is a casualty of the anti-gun cause. The Americans for Gun Safety radio ads against gun shows. National Review Online. May 21, 2002.
Should Gun Shows Be Outlawed? McCain Bill Does Much More than Impose Background Checks. Independence Institute, Issue Paper no. 1-2002. With Alan Korwin.
Defending Gun Shows. The groups attack gun shows are out to destroy the Second Amendment. Mar. 15, 2001. National Review Online. With Paul Gallant and Joanne Eisen.
McCain Is a No Show on Guns. The Arizona senator's questionable commitment to Second Amendment rights. National Review Online. Oct. 16, 2000.
The Facts about Gun Shows. Cato Institute. Jan. 10, 2000. (Also in Las-Vegas Review-Journal).
Gun Control Bill Defeated For Wrong Reasons. By William Ruefle and J. Mitchell Miller. Discusses gun shows.
Gun Shows Under Attack. The phony claims against shows put forth by the gun prohibition lobbies. And the plans to outlaw privacy for firearms owners. The American Guardian, January 1999.
Junk Legislation. By Linda Gorman.
National Instant Check System/Background Checks
Should people with handgun carry permits have to go through a repetitive background check when they buy a gun? Kopel discusses a proposed reform law in Colorado. KOA radio, "The Ride Home" with guest hosts Gloria Neal and Jon Caldara. March 27, 2009, 4 p.m. MP3.
No Fly, No Buy. Gun-banners want people whose names appear on secret government no-fly lists to be denied their constitutional right to keep and bear arms. America's 1st Freedom, Oct. 2005. PDF.
"The New McCarthyism: Restricting Constitutional Rights Based on Mere Suspicion." Independence Institute Issue Backgrounder, no. 2005-B. June 2005. Analysis of proposals to use the "no-fly list" or other suspicion-based lists as a basis for prohibiting the exercise of Second Amendment rights.
Erasing a Clinton Legacy. Rolling back antigun regs. National Review Online. Jan. 27, 2004. New law protects privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Terrorism and Guns. Ashcroft’s "coddling" of gun owners. National Review Online. December 17, 2001. With Glenn Harlan Reynolds. In italiano.
Instant Check, Permanent Record. National Review Online. Aug. 10, 2000. With Drs. Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.
Complaint filed by attorney Stephen Halbrook in NRA v. Reno, suing the Clinton Department of Justice for using the National Instant Check System to compile gun-owner registration lists. Memorandum in support of the complaint.
Registration of Guns and Gun Owners
The Tara Servatius Show. H.R. 45, Rep. Bobby Rush's gun licensing and registration bill. Guest-hosted by Bill White. WBT-AM, Charlotte, North Carolina. Feb. 16, 2009. MP3.
H.R. 45. United States Rep. Bobby Rush's national gun licensing and registration bill. The Peter Boyles Show. 630-AM KHOW Denver. Feb. 3, 2009. MP3. (This MP3 begins in the middle of the program.)
Eating Away at the Fabric of Freedom. Gun rationing laws lay the foundation for a total firearms ban. America's 1st Freedom, July 2003.
Disaster Up North. Gun-control laws run amuck, with a billion dollar cost overrun in the gun registry. National Review Online. Dec. 12, 2002. With Gary Mauser. En français.
Gun show Gun registration is not the answer. Charleston Gazette. Nov. 10, 2002.
Civil Disobedience in Canada. National Review Online. Aug. 2, 2000. With Drs. Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen. En français.
How Firearms Registration Works. It doesn't, in Canada. National Review Online. Dec. 7, 2000. With Gary Mauser. En français.
See also National Instant Check System; BATFE and BATFE Traces.
The Brady Bill Comes Due: The Supreme Court Saves Federalism, 9 George Mason Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Journal 189 (1999).
Amicus brief for the States of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming, in Printz v. United States (U.S. 1997).
Gun Foes Should Tell the Whole Story. Op-ed discussing the phony claims that a waiting period would have stopped John Hinckley. Cato Institute. 1991.
Why Wait to Buy a Gun? What's wrong with the Brady Bill. Chicago Tribune. Sept. 12, 1988.
Testimony on the Brady Bill. U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Aug. 2, 1988. PDF. Reprinted in History of Issues: Gun Control (Gale, 2006).
blog: Brady Bill anniversary, and Clinton's phony story, 11/30/05.
Politics and Activism
Subtopics: The Age of Obama. Elections. 2008 Election. 2006 Election. 2003-04 Elections. 2002 Election and Politics. 2000 Election. Earlier Elections. Anti-gun Groups. Pro-rights Groups. Other topics.
Trimming Citizens. Efforts to restrict the free speech rights which had been protected in the Citizens United case. America's 1st Freedom, May 2010. OSHEESH! How President Obama’s latest anti-gun appointee—proposed OSHA Director David Michaels—could place sweeping restrictions on your Right to Keep and Bear Arms. America's 1st Freedom. November 2009.
Koh, No! President Barack Obama continues to fill his administration with devout gun-ban advocates, this time appointing transnationalist Harold Koh as legal adviser to the Department of State. America's 1st Freedom. July 2009.
The Pieces Fall into Place. With Gil Kerlikowske, President Obama continues the trend of appointing gun-haters to important positions in his administration. America's 1st Freedom, May 2009.
Education at the Extremez, America’s 1st Freedom, Apr. 2009. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The once-fired brass debate. The Obama Department of Defense abruptly announced that it would stop selling once-fired brass to ammunition manufacturers--a move which threatened to substantially worsen the current shortage of ammunition for citizens. But the story has a happy ending, thanks to quick action by Second Amendment supporters. Unfortunately, this week it was also revealed that the Obama administration has moved to destroy the armed pilots program. And the National Park Service moves to ban all lead in national parks. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Mar. 20, 2009. MP3.
"Restoring the Right to Bear Arms" in the Cato Handbook for Policymakers (2008, 7th ed.). With Robert A. Levy.
Stick to Your Guns, Senator. Giving in to the anti-gun lobby will not help Kirsten Gillibrand stay in office. National Review Online. Feb. 24, 2009. The Whole World is Watching. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's potential effect on Second Amendment rights. America's 1st Freedom. March 2009. PDF.
Strike Two! Attorney General Eric Holder and the Second Amendment. America's 1st Freedom. Feb. 2009.
Secretary of State Clinton and the Second Amendment. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Jan. 30, 2009. MP3.
Attorney General nominee Eric Holder. Jan. 23, 2009. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. MP3.
Gun Control. Issue 24 of the "Change in Command" series, explaining how Americans view the impending inauguration of President Obama. January 2009.
Beware the Rahm. After pledging his support for the Second Amendment during the campaign, President-elect Barack Obama appoints devout gun-ban supporter Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. America's 1st Freedom. Jan. 2009.
Eric Holder on Firearms Policy. Volokh Conspiracy. Nov. 20, 2008.
Does the National Rifle Association Influence Federal Elections? Independence Institute Issue Paper no. 8-2006. December 2006. By Christopher B. Kenny, Michael McBurnett & David J. Bordua. PDF.
How the Second Amendment Fared Tonight. Volokh Conspiracy. Nov. 5, 2008.
Obama and McCain: Stark contrast on gun rights. Denver Post. Nov. 3, 2008.
Gunning for Victory. Second Amendment voter guide. National Review Online. October 30, 2008.
Interview with Richard Pearson, Executive Director of the Illinois State Rifle Association. Podcast for iVoices.org. Oct. 14, 2008. Pearson has been lobbying on sporting and right to arms issues at the Illinois legislature since 1989. He has more first-hand knowledge of Obama's record on these issues than anyone except Obama himself. In the 20-minutes podcast interview, Pearson suggests that Obama's claim about his supposed support for sportsmen is extremely inaccurate.
When Obama Wrestles with Heller. Barack Obama is a tremendous threat to the Heller decision. He has an extreme anti-gun record. The persons being named as his potential Supreme Court and Cabinet nominees have established records of anti-rights activism. America's 1st Freedom. October 2008.
FactCheck Flubs Obama Gun Fact Check. The NRA's claims about Obama's anti-gun views are supported by his voting record. The Volokh Conspiracy weblog. Sept. 23, 2008.
Gun Owners for Hillary? Townhall.com, May 9, 2008.
The Democrats and Gun Control. The Clinton and Obama records belie their claims to support the Second Amendment. Wall Street Journal. April 17, 2008.
Obama's Other Spiritual Mentor: Rev. Michael Pfleger. The man whom Obama described as one of his three spiritual mentors is a Farrakhan devotee who hates the Second Amendment. Volokh Conspiracy weblog. Apr. 8, 2008. Gun Rights and Election '08. Kopel analyzes McCain, Clinton, and Obama. Feb. 26, 2008. MP3.
Ron’s Revolution: Could Dr. Paul really surprise us all? National Review Online, Oct. 9, 2007.
Romney, a Second Amendment Killer? Bill Richardson for president!? National Review Online, April 11, 2007.
blog: Hillary Clinton's growing appeal to the gun vote, 5/10/08, 4/13/08.
Election Night 2006 and the Second Amendment. iVoices.org podcast interview with Kopel. 8 minutes. Nov. 8, 2006.
Arms-Bearing Can Bear the Defeat. The Second Amendment emerges from the election relatively unscathed. National Review Online, Nov. 8, 2006.
2006 Second Amendment Election Guide. All the Governor, Senate, and key House races. Oct. 31, 2006.
blog: Texas Primary and the RKBA, 3/8/06.
Arms Alive. The Second Amendment triumphed on Election Day. National Review Online. Nov. 3, 2004.
Key Second Amendment Races. Election guide to U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and Governor's Races. Nov. 2, 2004.
Unarmed for the Election. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't know the basics of California gun laws. National Review Online. Sept. 30, 2003.
blog: Kerry's gun, 9/7/04.
2002 election and politics
Gunning for the Leadership. Frist and Lott gun rights records compared. National Review Online. Dec. 20, 2002.
Second Wins and Losses. How the Second Amendment made out. National Review Online. Nov. 6, 2002.
A Second Amendment Voting Guide. Journey through the states and offices. National Review Online. Nov. 4, 2002.
The Second Amendment Score. How America voted on guns. National Review Online. Nov. 8, 2000.
Second Amendment Cheat Sheet II. More competitive races for pro-gun Americans to watch. National Review Online. Nov. 4, 2000.
Second Amendment Cheat Sheet. The most competitive races for pro-gun Americans to watch. National Review Online. Nov. 3, 2000.
Gore Screws on the Silencer. Al goes mum on guns to avoid a Dukakis-like blunder. National Review Online. Aug. 29, 2000.
The Gore Gun Agenda. Al's ultimate objective would be to abolish all firearms privacy. National Review Online., May 5, 2000. Discussion of the secret report of the White House Working Group.
George Bush and the NRA. Gun World. 1996.
The Gun Issue in the 1988 Presidential Election. How Dukakis's gun prohibition stand turned what could have been a close race into a landslide. Gun World. 1989.
blog: Inaccurate Statement by Brady Campaign's head, 6/13/08. Hurray for Jim and Sarah Brady, 4/1/06.
What's that Smell? Nearly everyone has heard of the corruption-plagued organization ACORN. Yet many gun owners are unaware of the organization’s strong anti-gun activities and ties. America's 1st Freedom, Dec. 2009.
Demon’s in the Details. Dems try to put together a new gun strategy, but wind up in the same place — falsely demonizing gun owners. National Review Online. July 24, 2001.
Not Quite a Million Moms. National Review Online. May 15, 2001.
Bigoted Moms Tempered. National Review Online. May 11, 2001.
Gunning for Hysteria. The long-term objectives of the anti-gun lobbies. National Review Online. Feb 23, 2001.
The Million Mom March. Much Less than Advertised. National Review Online, May, 12, 2000.
The Diane Rehm Show. Kopel interviewed on National Public Radio, just before the "Million" Mom March. May 11, 1999. RealAudio format.
Speech Freed! The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United restores the free speech of civil rights groups, such as the NRA. America's 1st Freedom. April 2010.
Does the National Rifle Association Influence Federal Elections? Independence Institute Issue Paper no. 8-2006. December 2006. By Christopher B. Kenny, Michael McBurnett & David J. Bordua. PDF.
Ambrose E. Burnside. General, Governor, Senator, Civil Rights Activist and First President of the NRA. America's 1st Freedom. Nov. 2004. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen. In PDF. (This web version is slightly longer than the text which was printed in the magazine, and is therefore laid out somewhat differently.)
City Council v. NRA. New York City Council is upset that NRA will attend Republican Convention. National Review Online. Aug. 30, 2004. With Paul Blackman.
The Hero of Gettysburg. Winfield Scott Hancock shot straight. National Review Online. July 2, 2004. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Biography of the 8th President of the National Rifle Association.
Misfiring at Harlon Carter. National Review Online. Aug. 14, 2000.
Scoundrel Time is Back. A response to the false charge that Larry Pratt, President of Gun Owners of America, is a racist. Denver Post, Feb. 20, 1996.
Good Riddance George. Paul Danish and David Kopel bid farewell to George Bush as an NRA member. May 1995.
blog: Rudyard Kipling and Gun Control, 11/28/05.
Guns at Presidential Speeches. Kopel and Caldara discusses the lawful carrying of firearms outside of buildings where the President is speaking, and why Kopel thinks it is harmful to the pro-Second Amendment movement. Aug. 21, 2009. 11:58.
Podcast on Gun Issues At the Oct. 2007 Gun Rights Policy Conference, Kopel is interviewed for the Gun Rights Advocates Podcast by host Mark Vanderberg. Topics include the implications and background of the D.C. handgun ban case, the politics of the gun issue, the role of activists, and new research about gun bans in Africa. The 36-minute interview is here. It begins with about 5-6 minutes of discussion by the host.
The State of Your Gun Rights. Podcast interview with Kopel on iVoices. 10 minutes. Discusses concealed carry victories, and more. Play now. Download in MP3.
Gun Control: Separating Fact from Myth. Dave Kopel and Gary Kleck speak at the Independent Institute, in Oakland. Nov. 15, 2000. Transcript. Note: The Independent Institute (in Oakland) is totally separate from the Independence Institute (in Colorado) where Dave works.
Citibank Goes PC. But then relents when it finds that being against the Second Amendment is bad business. National Review Online. Sept. 20, 2000. With Dave Gowan.
Somebody Else's Guns. Why gun owners are mistaken to imagine that gun controls aimed at other people pose no threat to gun ownership for everyone. Blue Press. May 1994.
The Independence Institute's exposed Denver Mayor Wellington Webb's 1991 campaign promise to issue handgun carry permits, and his attempt to obtain NRA election support. Read Wellington Webb's pro-NRA, pro-handgun-carrying letter yourself. (PDF)
Things You Can Do to Defend Your Gun Rights. (Electronic Edition). Alan Gottlieb and Dave Kopel. Book. Entire book in one file, or each chapter available as a separate file.
Gun Industry/Lawsuits against Gun Companies.
Firearms business. Lawsuits. Censorship of firearms advertising.
Learning from Coltsville. The case for this national-park candidate. National Review Online. Sept. 23, 2002. National Park status for Coltsville, the industrial village created by Samuel Colt. With Michael Brotherton.
Terms of Revilement. Book review of Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America (by Tom Diaz). Chronicles, February, pp. 29-30.
blog: SHOT Show Report, 1/17/09.
Debate on Tort Protection for Gun Manufacturers. Oct. 27, 2005. The Legal Talk Network hosted a debate on the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act. Participants were UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, Josh Horowitz from the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, and Kopel. The debate is available in WMF and MP3.
Ban lawsuits that hurt legal gun industry. Philadelphia Inquirer. May 19, 2003.
National Public Radio, The Tavis Smiley Show. Kopel interviewed for 4/9/03 program on the NAACP's lawsuit against the firearms industry.
Gunned Down. The case for prohibiting abusive lawsuits. The West Palm Beach suit against the wholesaler of a Raven pistol used to murder a teacher. National Review Online. Nov. 15, 2002.
Unintended Consequences. The fruits of hysterical antigun lawsuits. National Review Online. Mar. 6, 2002.
Protecting Makers of Weapons Boosts Democracy, Rights. Analysis of Merrill v. Navegar. Los Angeles Daily Journal, and the San Francisco Daily Journal. Aug. 30, 2001.
Smith and Wesson's Faustian Bargain. National Review Online, Mar. 20 & 21, 2000. [Note: the agreement described in these articles never went into effect. Smith & Wesson is now under American ownership, and has no agreements stemming from the abusive lawsuits.]
Should Gunmakers Pay Damages to Local Governments for Gun-related Violence and Injuries? Feb. 11, 2000. CQ Researcher (Congressional Quarterly).
Strongarm Suits. February 2000, Liberty magazine, pp. 35-36.
Abusive Lawsuits against the Second Amendment. Independence Institute Issue Backgrounder. 1999.
Cities sue the gun industry. Dave Kopel debates Jonathan Lowy from Handgun Control, Inc., regarding the municipal lawsuits. Cato Institute. Feb. 26, 1999. You need the Real Video player to watch the 1 1/2 hour debate. C-Span archive.
The Sullivan Principles: Protecting the Second Amendment from Civil Abuse. Argues that courts should protect the Second Amendment from abusive lawsuits designed to interfere with Second Amendment rights, just as courts currently protect First Amendment rights from improper libel lawsuits. 19 Seton Hall Legislative Journal 737 (1995). With Richard Gardiner.
Blog: Congress bans abusive anti-gun lawsuits, 10/20/05. Florida court rejects Grunow suit, 6/2/05. NAACP lawsuit, 4/1/03. Boston consent decree dissolved, 4/16/02. Maryland case rejected, 3/10/02. Anti-tobacco activist Mark Pertshcuk offers anti-gun strategy, 3/16/02.
Censorship of Firearms Advertising
Anti-Gunners Target Gun Ads, 1st Amendment. The Blue Press, Aug. 2000. In italiano.
Other Firearms Topics
Subtopics: Book Reviews. BATFE and Gun Traces. Burglary. Culture and sociology. History. Public Health/Medicine/Psychology. Religion. Women.
Kopel on Independent Thinking. Host Jon Caldara interviews Kopel about HR 45, guns in national parks, a new Montana law to challenge the limits of the commerce clause, and the fallacy of U.S. guns in Mexico. KBDI television. July 10, 2009. YouTube video.
The Glenn and Helen Show: Talking Guns and Politics with Dave Kopel. Instapundit.com, Oct. 23, 2006. " Dave talks with us about violence and nonviolence, whether legalizing marijuana would cut down on gun crime, ways to prevent school shootings, questions of whether the right to keep and bear arms should be part of international law, and the likely impact of gun rights issues on the 2006 elections, and vice versa. Plus, discussion of which Second Amendment writers are 'hotties.' You can listen directly -- no downloading needed -- by going here and clicking on the gray Flash player. Or you can download the file directly right here. You can get a lo-fi version for dialup by going here and selecting 'lofi,' and you can subscribe via iTunes by going here."
Editorial Board for Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law (ABC/Clio: 2002).
Targeting Liberties. Montgomery County Police Chief Moose bungled the sniper case while recklessly abusing civil liberty. Chronicles, July 2003. With Paul Blackman. PDF of pre-publication galleys.
blog: Moose's bogus lawsuit, 8/8/03.
Getting Guns. Dave Kopel debates Michael Beard (Coalition to Stop Gun Violence) on the National Public Radio program Justice Talking. You can listen to the one-hour debate in Real Audio.
Gun Control & Gun Rights: A Reader & Guide. The first college and graduate textbook on gun law and policy. Published by New York University Press.
Day-Dream Believers. What if the government had to obey gun control laws? National Review Online. July 30, 2002.
Empty-Barrel Gun Policies. A legacy of nonsense from Clinton, Blair, and the Left. National Review Online. Jan. 22, 2001.
The 911 Gamble. The Blue Press. October 1998.
Does Gun Control Work? Transcript of Kopel's appearance on the Ben Wattenberg's "Think Tank" program on PBS.
Criminal Advantage. By Linda Gorman. Op-ed details how gun crime has risen and fallen, regardless of U.S. gun control laws.
Hold Your Fire: Gun Control Won't Stop Rising Violence. From Policy Review, Winter 1993.
Trust the People: The Case Against Gun Control. Cato Institute, July 11, 1988, Policy Analysis no. 109 (monograph). Reprinted in 3 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy 77 (1990). German translation (Deutsche Übersetzung, Vertraue der Bevölkerung: Die Causa gegen Waffenverbote)
Rowan Case and the Need to Bear Arms. Wall Street Journal. June 24, 1988. Reprinted in "Guns are Necessary for Self-Defense", in William Dudley, ed., Crime and Criminals. Opposing Viewpoints (San Diego: Greenhaven Pr. 1989).
blog: Armed Response to New Orleans Looters, 9/1/05.
Dave Kopel: Aiming for Liberty. Article about Kopel and his new book. America's 1st Freedom, June 2010.
From Bad To Worse. Book reviews of Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy by Dennis A. Henigan & Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea by Joshua Horwitz & Casey Anderson. America's 1st Freedom. October 2009.
Anti-Gun & Angry, Too. Another furious gun-banner jumps on the book publishing bandwagon. And as usual, the truth takes a beating. Book Review of One Nation Under Guns by Arnold Grossman. America's First Freedom. April 2007. PDF.
Ten on the Second. Ten great books (plus some bonus recommendations) on the right to arms. America's 1st Freedom, March 2007. PDF.
Gun Control Debate with Arnold Grossman, "One Nation Under Guns" and David Kopel, "Gun Control and Gun Rights". Description: The Denver Press Club hosts a debate on the issue of gun control. Arnold Grossman, author of "One Nation Under Guns - An Essay on An American Epidemic," argues the pro-gun control case while David Kopel, co-editor of "Gun Control and Gun Rights: A Reader and Guide" speaks for the opposing side. The debate is moderated by Cnythia Hessin, executive producer of Rocky Mountain PBS. The debate was broadcast on C-Span's Book TV. C-Span video. You can also watch a replay of the debate in Quicktime or in WMV format. The replay is produced by fom the Independence Institute's iVoices.org multimedia center; the on-line replay used the C-Span feed; the iVoices version occasionally pixalates the video. In addition, you can read Kopel's Book review of One Nation Under Guns: an Essay on an American Epidemic by Arnie Grossman. (Also note the shorter book review, listed above). Kopel dissects a book riddled with factual and legal errors, and which, unintentionally, reveals why the gun control movement in the United States has become such a failure in recent years.
Book Reviews: A Nation of Cowards and The Origin of the Second Amendment. Ideas on Liberty, Mar. 2002.
Second Amendment Ammo. Recommended reading. Reason magazine, Dec. 2000. Reviews of More Guns, Less Crime; Guns: Who Should Have Them? and The Matchlock Gun (an award-winning children's book).
Book review of Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control. By Gary Kleck & Don Kates. National Review Weekend. Jan. 11, 2001.
$100 Billion Mistake. Loose factoids sink books. Review of Gun Violence: The Real Costs By Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig (Oxford University Press, 242 pages, $25). NRO Weekend, Aug. 25-26, 2001. With Paul Blackman.
Shaky Aim. Book review of Shots in the Dark: The Policy, Politics, and Symbolism of Gun Control, by William J. Vizzard. National Review Online, weekend edition. Nov. 3-4, 2001. With Paul Blackman.
Book review of Target Switzerland. The American Enterprise, Jan./Feb. 1999.
It Isn't About Duck Hunting: The British Origins of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Review of Joyce Malcolm's book To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right. 96 Michigan Law Review 1333 (1995).
Check the Footnotes. Skip Bellesiles. Read Halbrook. NRO Weekend, January 13-14, 2001. With Clayton Cramer. Book review of Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876, by Stephen P. Halbrook.
Olofson case. Suppression hearing transcript. Discovery. Firearms Technology Branch report. Trial transcript: part 1, part 2, part 3. (All these files are PDF).
Erasing a Clinton Legacy. Rolling back antigun regs. National Review Online. Jan. 27, 2004. New law protects privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Ballistic Imaging: Not Ready for Prime Time. National Center for Policy Analysis. Policy backgrounder. April 30, 2003. With Sterling Burnett.
When Must the Government Disclose Gun Owners' Names and Addresses? Preview of U.S. Supreme Court case Department of the Treasury v. City of Chicago. American Bar Association Preview of Supreme Court Cases, March 2003, pp. 289-93.
Tapped Out. Setting the record straight, and moving on. National Review Online. Feb. 5, 2003. The weblog for "The American Prospect" is willfully oblivious to BATF abuses and to good manners.
Firearms Tracing Data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms: An Occasionally Useful Law Enforcement Tool, but a Poor Research Tool, 11 Criminal Justice Policy Review 44 (Mar 2000). With Paul Blackman. Abstract: "The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) sometimes traces the history of firearms used in crime. Typically, the trace reveals the gun's history from its manufacture to its sale by a licensed retail firearms dealer. BATF traces occasionally have been a useful tool for investigating individual crimes. In recent years, however, some persons have attempted to use BATF trace data to study gun violence and evaluate firearms policies. There are severe limitations on the utility of the BATF data for criminological analysis. These limits include the relatively small number of crime guns that BATF traces, BATF's rules about what guns it will not even attempt to trace, and the limited information supplied by gun traces. The authors suggest that BATF trace figures are not a sound foundation for criminological research."
Clueless: The Misuse of BATF Firearms Tracing Data. From the Law Review of Michigan State University Detroit College of Law. PDF.
Lawmaking at the BATF. How the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms invents new gun law, by abuse of administrative authority. The American Guardian. October 1998.
Do Federal Gun Traces Accurately Reflect Street Crime? Small Fraction of Guns Selected for National Trace may not be Typical of Ordinary Crime Guns. Independence Institute Issue Paper. 1993.
blog: BATFE Director now needs Senate confirmation, 3/8/06.
Comment on Cook & Ludwig, "Guns and Burglary," in Evaluating Gun Policy: Effects on Crime and Violence (Brookings Institution, 2003). Philip J. Cook & Jens Ludwig, editors.
Lawyers,
Guns, and Burglars, 43 Arizona
Law Review 345 (2001). Symposium issue.
The International Hunter Education Association. Kopel interviews the International Hunter Education Association's Wayne East, about IHEA's good works in teaching safety and responsibility. 26 minutes. Feb. 16, 2010. MP3.
Humanizing Gun Nuts. An anthropologist shoots down stereotypes about gun enthusiasts. Reason, Feb. 2005. Independence Institute intern Eric Dzinski reviews Abigail A. Kohn's book Shooters: Myths and Realities of America’s Gun Cultures.
Political Science. The National Academy of Sciences gears up for an anti-gun study. National Review Online. Aug. 29, 2001. With Glenn Harlan Reynolds.
More Guns, Less Gun Violence, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 4, 2000.
Packing the Peace. Don't Underestimate the Deterrent Effect of an Armed Population. National Review Online, June 14, 2000. With Linda Gorman.
Some Frequently Overlooked Facts in Gun Policy Discussions. By Linda Gorman. Short paper showing that guns in the right hands enhance public safety, and gun control fails to disarm gun misusers.
The Ideology of Guns and Gun Control in the United States. 18 Quarterly Journal of Ideology 3 (1995). Article by Kopel examining the ideologies (as opposed to the practicalities) behind gun ownership and gun control advocacy in the U.S.
History
Sergeant York. Great Hero of the Great War. America's 1st Freedom, Feb. 2005. PDF.
Don’t Mess with (Armed) Texans. The real lesson of the Alamo. National Review Online. April 8, 2004.
Gun Bans and "Schindler's List". Independence Institute. Aug. 24, 1994. With William R. Tonso.
D-Day was almost a German Holiday. June 1994. With Dan Gifford.
Public Health/Medicine/Psychology
blog: Should Health Care Workers be able to Refuse Treatment to Gun Owners? 3/20/06.
blog: Doctors and Guns. Virginia considers restricting doctors from forcing and anti-gun political agenda on their patients. 2/28/06.
This One’s a General. Richard Carmona, hero. National Review Online. Aug. 14, 2002. With Dr. Timothy Wheeler.
Right of Refusal: If your doctor starts pestering you about guns, you have several options. National Review Online. July 5, 2001. With Dr. Timothy Wheeler.
No Choice. “Weapons-effect” paralysis. National Review Online. Apr. 17, 2002. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.
Anti-Gun, Anti-Science. Firearms factoids from the federal government. National Review Online. Feb. 27, 2001.
The Fallacy of '43 to 1". The all-time favorite statistic of the gun-prohibition lobby. National Review Online. Jan. 31, 2001. In italiano.
Living in Fear. "Community" fear as a basis for gun restrictions. National Review Online. Jan. 17, 2001. With Dr. Paul Gallant and Dr. Joanne Eisen.
"Firearms Deaths in Colorado." Issue Backgrounder 2001-D. With Diane Nicholl.
The "Psychic Cost" of Holiday Gift Giving. Do gun owners inflict psychic harm on their neighbors? 1997. With Paul Gallant.
Guns, Germs, and Science. Critique of the medical case for gun prohibition. Delivered at the University of Oklahoma School of Public Health. Oct. 1994.
Dhimmitude and Disarmament. 18 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 305 (2008). PDF.
Self-defense in Asian Religions, 2 Liberty Law Review 79 (2007).
The Torah and Self-Defense. 109 Penn State Law Review 17 (2004). In PDF.
God, Man, and Tyrants. John of Salisbury and the Bestselling Book of the Twelfth Century. Liberty. May 2004.
A Rich Tradition. Jewish war lessons. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2002.
Does God Believe in Gun Control? Analysis of Biblical texts and other religious authorities about arms and defense of the innocent. In italiano.
blog: Luther and the Christian Duty to Defend Innocents, 11/17/05.
See also the Kopel web page on Religion.
Her Own Bodyguard. Gun-packing First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. National Review Online. Jan. 24, 2002. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.
Jennifer Mamich: Book review of Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in America. National Review Online, Oct. 7-9, 2000.
Rapists Like Gun Control. National Review Online, Apr. 14, 2000. What if Juanita Broaddrick had been carrying a gun? In italiano.
You Can't Beat an (Armed) Woman. By Paxton Quigley & David Kopel. June 9, 1994. Guns as defensive tools for battered women. In italiano.
Tammy Zywicki and Sarah Brady. Richard Griffiths discusses a woman's right to self-defense.
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