Foreign Gun Control

Other Kopel pages on the right to arms: Law, history, philosophy, politics. Policy topics.

Topics: World & Multilateral, subtopics: development, human rights, global data, genocide, CIFTA treaty. United Nations. Africa. Ancient Greece and Rome. Australia. Brazil. Canada. China. Colombia. Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eastern Europe. Ethiopia. Finland. Germany. Great Britain. Hungary. India. Iraq. Ireland. Israel. Italy. Jamaica. Japan. Jordan. Kenya. Kuwait. Mali. Mexico. New Zealand. Philippines. Poland. Russian Federation. South Africa. Sudan. Switzerland. Thailand. Uganda. Venezuela. Vietnam. Zimbabwe.

Full text translations of national gun control laws

Firearms Law of Vietnam. Full translation of Vietnamese arms statute, plus Vietnamess text, and historical background. Independence Institute Issue Paper no. 5-2017. By Tien Thuy Dinh.

Colombia's National Law of Firearms and Explosives. Full translation of the Colombian statutes, along with historical and narrative explanation. Independence Institute Issue Paper no. 3-2011. By Jonathan Edward Shaw.

Hungarian Weapons Law of May 2004. English translation and explanation, plus Hungarian text.

Mexico's Federal Laws on Firearms and Explosives. University of Denver Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-12. April 2010. By David Kopel.

Weapons Laws of the Russian Federation. Independence Institute Issue Paper number 7-2012. May 2012. By Margot van Loon. Full translation of the statutes into English.

World & Multilateral

Dave Kopel on Guns and Tyranny. Self in Society, with Ari Armstrong. June 15, 2022. 65 mins.

The Moral Right to Self-Defense, and the Right to Bear Arms. Self-defense is a universal human right. Epoch Times. Sept. 27, 2018.

Firearms United successfully pushes back against EU gun ban proposal. Cam & Company. NRA News. Dec. 22, 2016.

Good guys with guns: Former Interpol chief Ron Noble on the Westgate Mall mass shooting. Washington Post. May 16, 2016.

Waking to a Dangerous World. America's 1st Freedom. March 2015. Violence around the world is causing a change in firearm policies in many countries, and also a pro-gun shift in attitude here in the United States.

International Gun Control Debate. Kopel debates gun control policy as it relates to international law at the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. YouTube.com. 58 minutes. Feb. 12, 2013.

Justice for All: A Better Path to Global Firearms Control. 2 Jindal Global L. Rev. 198 (2010). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Mayor Daley and other Mayors: Seek "redress against the gun industry" in the World Court. Volokh.com. April 28, 2010.

The Whole World is Watching. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's potential effect on Second Amendment rights. America's 1st Freedom. March 2009. PDF.

Arms Trade Treaty's Purpose: Block Arms Sales to Israel. Volokh.com. January 30, 2009.

Firearms Possession by 'Non-State Actors': the Question of Sovereignty. 8 Texas Review of Law and Politics 373 (2004). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. In PDF.

In their own words: Does anything need to be done to control transfers to (and misuse of weapons by) non-state actors? Short Kopel essay in a collection of several. Small Arms and Human Security Bulletin, June 2004, page 6. PDF format.

Self-Defense: The Equalizer. 15 Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 92 (No. 4, Winter 2000). Survey of gun control polices and results in Japan, Britain, Canada, and Australia. With Linda Gorman. PDF version. Reprinted in James D. Toor, ed., Guns and Crime. At Issue (Greenhaven Pr., 2004).

New York Law School Symposium. Kopel's symposium lecture on lessons from gun control in other nations.

Development

Does the Right to Bear Arms Impede or Promote Economic Development? 6 Engage 85 (2005, issue 1)(journal of The Federalist Society). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Using case studies from Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, this article refutes the claim of gun prohibition advocates that the presence of "small arms" is a cause of economic underdevelopment. The article also details the harmful effects of UN policy regarding malaria and AIDS in the Third World. PDF version. Html version.

Cutting Through the Fog. The role that firearms, malaria, AIDS, and kleptocracy play in development failure. America's 1st Freedom, January 2007.

Human Rights

Gun Ownership and Human Rights, Brown Journal of World Affairs (Winter/Spring 2003, vol. IX, no. 2). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. PDF format. HTML format.

An International Human Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 15 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 983 (2007). By Christopher J. Schmidt.

The Human Right of Self-Defense. 22 BYU Journal of Public Law43 (2008). David Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. PDF.

Is there a human right of self-defense? Discussion of the natural rights foundation of international law, and U.N.'s claim that there is no right of self-defense. iVoices.org podcast. March 29, 2011. MP3.

Human Rights and Gun Confiscation. 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 385(2008). PDF. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Examines human rights abuses in gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda, and in South Africa's quasi-confiscatory licensing law. Also provides the most complete collection ever presented of international survey data about why people in various countries own guns.

Global Data

Fact check: Obama claim that ‘I say this every time we've got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn't happen in other countries.' Washington Post. Dec. 1, 2015.

"Is There a Relationship between Guns and Freedom? Comparative Results from 59 Nations." 13 Texas Review of Law & Politics 1(2008). With Carlisle Moody & Howard Nemerov. There are 59 nations for which data about per capita gun ownership are available. This Working Paper examines the relationship between gun density and several measures of freedom and prosperity: the Freedom House ratings of political rights and civil liberty, the Transparency International Perceived Corruption Index, the World Bank Purchasing Power Parity ratings, and the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. The data suggest that the relationships between gun ownership rates and these other measures are complex. The data show that (although exceptions can be found) the nations with the highest rates of gun ownership tend to have greater political and civil freedom, greater economic freedom and prosperity, and much less corruption than other nations. The relationship only exists in for high-ownership countries. Countries with medium rates of gun density generally scored no better or worse than countries with the lowest levels of gun rates.

More guns, more freedom? Kopel's new law review article finding that nations with higher rates of gun ownership tend to have higher levels of civil, political, and economic freedom. Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast. Mar. 13, 2009. MP3.

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 672 (2010). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Numbers from Nowhere. Conjuring facts to promote a global gun ban. The claim of 740,000 annual deaths from arms. America's 1st Freedom, May 2011.

Global Deaths from Firearms: Searching for Plausible Estimates. 8 Texas Review of Law and Politics 114 (2003). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. PDF.

Genocide

Guns Kill People, and Tyrants with Gun Monopolies Kill the Most. 25 Gonzaga Journal of International Law 20 (2021).

Guns Kill People, and Tyrants with Gun Monopolies Kill the Most: In the long term, disarmament often leads to mass murder by government. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. June 9, 2022. Summary of above article.

Gun Control Puts Your Life at Risk. In the 20th century, far more people were murdered by genocidal governments than by armed criminals. Reason. Oct. 2020.

Mass shootings in gun-free nations. Washington Post. Nov. 9, 2017.

How Gun Control Led to Genocide in this Small European Country. The story of Bosnia. Conservative Review. Aug. 8, 2016. by Jasmin Dolamic, former Ind. Inst. intern.

Alan Steinweis's bad history. NY Times op-ed denigrating Jewish resistance to the Nazis flubs history. Washington Post. Oct. 16, 2015.

Unarmed Jews defeat mass murder: Revolts at the extermination camps. Washington Post. Oct. 12, 2015.

The Warsaw ghetto uprising: Armed Jews vs. Nazis. Washington Post. Oct. 10, 2015.

Armed Resistance to Genocide. Presentation on the armed resistance to genocide given to the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. YouTube.com. 82 minutes. Oct. 21, 2014.

Holocaust remembrance week: How armed Jews saved lives. During the "Days of Remembrance" for the Holocaust, remember the heroic armed Jewish partisans who fought the Nazis and saved lives. Washington Post. May 2, 2014.

"Gun Control in The Third Reich." by Stephen Halbrook. Book review. Nov. 2013.

Lethal Laws. Book review by Kopel in the New York Journal of International and Comparative Laws. Discusses book showing the connection between gun prohibition and genocide.

The right to arms to resist genocide. Second Amendment Symposium, George Mason University School of Law, Sept. 24, 2005. Windows Media hi low. QuickTime hi low.

Is Resisting Genocide a Human Right? 81 Notre Dame Law Review1275(2006). Conducting an in-depth study of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and also discussing other genocides, this article details the inadequacy of many of the international community's response to genocides, such as "targeted sanctions" or international peacekeeping forces. Examining international legal authorities such as the Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Court of Justice, the article demonstrates that groups which are being subjected to genocide have a legal right of self-defense. International treaties, Security Council arms embargoes, or national gun control laws cannot lawfully be enforced in a manner which prevents self-defense resistance to a genocide in progress, because under international law, the prohibition against any form of complicity in genocide takes legal precedence over lesser laws. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. In PDF.

Gun Bans & Genocide: The Disarming Facts. How gun control has been used in the Darfur, Sudan genocide. Genocide and United Nations disarmament in other African countries. America's 1st Freedom, August 2006. PDF. HTML.

CIFTA Treaty

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.

The OAS Treaty: Blueprint for Dismantling the Second Amendment. Administration support for a dangerous international treaty shows its disdain for the Constitution and America's law-abiding gun owners. America's 1st Freedom. August 2009.

United Nations

(Note also, many individual countries stories have a U.N. component.)

United Nations: Trouble in Paradise. Report on the 2015 meeting for implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty. America's 1st Freedom. Nov. 2015.

U.N.-Believable. By giving support to the negotiation and passage of a U.N. arms trade treaty, the Obama administration is allowing foreign government to remake the 2nd Amendment - and thus the United States - in their own image. America's 1st Freedom. June 2013.

First item of new post-election "flexibility": U.N. gun control. Volokh.com. Nov. 7, 2012.

Feeling Blue. The Obama administration's support for gun control initiatives at U.N. conferences in the summer of 2010. America's 1st Freedom, Oct. 2010.

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 United Nations and the Second Amendment. Gun Rights Policy Conference. St. Louis. Sept. 26, 2009. 10 minutes. YouTube.

U.N. To World: You Have No Human Right to Self-Defense. Thwarted by the demise of its global gun ban treaty, the United Nations declares the human right of self-defense null and void. America's 1st Freedom, November 2006.

The United Nations versus Self-defense. Speech at the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Charlotte, N.C. Sept. 23, 2006. 16 minutes. Podcast in MP3.

The UN's New Attack on Law-abiding American Gun Owners. How the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly are moving towards declaring the absence of sufficiently repressive American laws on gun ownership and self-defense to be a violation of international human rights. The Volokh Conspiracy. Sept. 13, 2006.

The United Nations vs. the Second Amendment, Volokh.com, 7/21/08.

U.N. Disarmament Programs

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.

Human Rights and Gun Confiscation, 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 383 (2008). PDF. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Examines human rights abuses in gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda, and in South Africa's quasi-confiscatory licensing law. Also provides the most complete collection ever presented of international survey data about why people in various countries own guns.

Human Rights Atrocities: The Consequences of United Nations Gun Confiscation in East Africa. By Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant, and Joanne Eisen. How U.N.-backed gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda have led to murder, torture, and arson, and have turned tens of thousands of pastoral tribespeople into starving refugees. Issue Backgrounder. In PDF. In HTML.

Microdisarmament: The Consequences for Public Safety and Human Rights. UMKC Law Review (2005). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Examines UN-sponsored programs to disarm people in Cambodia, Bougainville, Albania, Panama, Guatemala, and Mali. In PDF. In HTML.

Guns Don't Kill People, Gun Control Kills People. Uganda terrorizes its own citizens under the auspices of a UN gun control mandate. Reason Online. Feb. 23, 2007. With Joanne D. Eisen & Paul Gallant. Español.

United Nations Gun Confiscation. Kopel discusses the international gun prohibition movement, and his new paper about human rights abuses in the gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda. Podcast in MP3.

Gun Prohibition One Country at a Time, 5/25/05.

When Policy Kills. More deadly U.N. issues. The Srebrenica massacre and the U.N.'s disarmament policies. National Review Online. Jan. 27, 2003. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. In italiano.

2006 conference

The U.N. Wants Your Gun. Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2006. En français. Polski (Polish).

UN Conference Ending, Freedom Winning! The Volokh Conspiracy. July 7, 2006. (Polski/Polish translation.)

2001 Conference

The UN Small Arms Conference, 23 SAIS Review 319 (Winter/Spring 2003, Issue 1). In italiano.

U.N. Out of North America. National Review Online. Aug. 9, 2001. Part five of the five-part series on the UN and Guns.

U.N. Gives Tyranny a Hand. National Review Online. Aug. 6, 2001. Part four of the five-part series on the UN and Guns.

Bypassing U.S. Voters. National Review Online. Aug. 3, 2001. Part three of the five-part series on the UN and Guns.

Gunning Against Guns. Transparency at the United Nations. National Review Online. Aug. 1, 2001. Part two of the five-part series on the UN and Guns.

Score One for Bush. A U.N. conference concludes without too much permanent damage. National Review Online. July 30, 2001. Part one of the five-part series on the UN and Guns.

Africa (see also individual countries)

Egypt: Triggered by Safety Concerns, Gun Ownership on the Rise. NRA News. March 24, 2011.

Human Rights and Gun Confiscation, 26 Quinnipiac Law Review383(2008). PDF. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Examines human rights abuses in gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda, and in South Africa's quasi-confiscatory licensing law. Also provides the most complete collection ever presented of international survey data about why people in various countries own guns.

Dhimmitude and Disarmament, 18 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 305 (2008). PDF. Covers the Islamic world, from Persia to North Africa.

Le contrôle des armes en Afrique francophone. Le 26 mai 2006 au 18 juin 2006. (Gun Control in Francophone Africa.) En français et anglais. In both French and English.

Is Resisting Genocide a Human Right? 81 Notre Dame Law Review 1275 (2006). Conducting an in-depth study of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and also discussing other genocides, this article details the inadequacy of many of the international community's response to genocides, such as "targeted sanctions" or international peacekeeping forces. Examining international legal authorities such as the Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Court of Justice, the article demonstrates that groups which are being subjected to genocide have a legal right of self-defense. International treaties, Security Council arms embargoes, or national gun control laws cannot lawfully be enforced in a manner which prevents self-defense resistance to a genocide in progress, because under international law, the prohibition against any form of complicity in genocide takes legal precedence over lesser laws.

Ancient Greece and Rome

Arms and the Greeks. What Plato and Aristotle thought about arms control. Liberty. August 1999.

The Founders' Reading of Ancient History. Feb. 2000, Chronicles, pp. 47-48.

Asia/Pacific (not including Japan and China)

Dhimmitude and Disarmament. 18 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 305 (2008). Covers the Islamic world, from Persia to North Africa.

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.

Lions vs. Tigers. The precarious state of Sri Lanka. National Review Online. Mar. 3, 2004. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Birth of a Nation. What East Timor and the U.S. have in common. And what they don't. National Review Online. Mar. 12, 2002. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.

Little Island that Roared. The story of Bougainville, and gun prohibition. National Review Online. Feb. 6, 2002. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.

Solomon Says. The madness of civilian disarmament in the South Pacific. National Review Online. Nov. 27, 2000. With Drs. Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.

Australia

NRA News. Cam & Company. Sept. 29, 2018. Australia's Gun Control Laws Won't Reduce Gun Deaths Here. New study finds no reduction in suicide from gun confiscation

Pro-gun Party Grows in Australia. NRA News. Oct. 31, 2017. The Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers party in New South Wales.

Who Needs Guns? Lessons from Down Under. Chronicles, Oct. 2003. Gun confiscation in Australia. HTML version.

Brazil

Brazil Senate Proposal Calls for Vote on Gun Sales. NRA News. April 14, 2011.

Canada

$2 Billion They'll Never See Again. Canada repeals long gun registration. America's 1st Freedom. July 2012.

Canada Abolishes Long Gun Registry. Volokh.com. Apr. 5, 2012.

The most important right to arms vote of 2009. Volokh.com. November 4, 2009.

Off Target. A 1989 college shooting in Montreal incited a $2 billion Canadian long gun registry. Seventeen years later, another Montreal college shooting mocks the failed registry. America's 1st Freedom. January 2007.

Cana-cerous. After a decade of failure, Canada is taking steps to infect the rest of the world with its costly gun-banning schemes. America's 1st Freedom, Dec. 2005. PDF. Html.

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.

Canadian Gun Control: Should America Look North for a Solution to its Firearms Problem? 5 Temple Journal of International and Comparative Law 1 (1991).

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.

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.

The Failure of Canadian Gun Control. The American Rifleman. Sept. 1988.

blog: One-stop Shopping for Gun Thieves, 3/20/06. Marc Lepine 3/15/06. Canadian Government to Ban Handguns, 12/8/05. Ban on the word "gun" in spelling books, 2/11/03.

China and Occupied Tibet

Remembering the heroes of Camp Hale. The Tibetan freedom fighters who battled the Chinese Communist colonialists. The Gazette (Denver). Oct. 16, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion Part 6: The Tibetan resistance continues, and thwarts a genocide. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 17, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion. Part 5: 1959, Lhasa, and the Momentous Day. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 16, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion. Part 4: 1958—the Chushi Gangdruk unify the uprising. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 15, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion. Part 3: Eastern Tibet is liberated 1956-57. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 14, 2022.

Tibet's Armed Resistance to Chinese Invasion. Part 2: Communist orders for gun registration lead to revolt. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 13, 2022.

Tibet's Armed Resistance to Chinese Invasion. Part 1: The feckless Tibetan government fails to prepare. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 12, 2022.

China's Newest Exports. One of the biggest human rights violators on the planet publishes nonsense about our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. America's 1st Freedom. Sept. 2012.

The Dalai Lama's Army. A right to self-defense is recognized by the Dalai Lama -- indeed, his predecessor tried to recruit an army. National Review Online, April 5, 2007.

China Tallies Our Rights Record. The U.S. and guns, according to them. National Review Online. Feb. 25, 2002.

Arms in the Celestial Kingdom. Dave Kopel investigates what Confucius had to say about bearing arms. Liberty magazine. Nov. 1999.

Colombia

Colombia's National Law of Firearms and Explosives. Full translation of the Colombian statutes, along with historical and narrative explanation. Independence Institute Issue Paper no. 3-2011. By Jonathan Edward Shaw.

Czechoslovakia

The Danger of a Communist Monopoly on the Media and Firearms. The story of the 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia. Epoch Times. June 9, 2019.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

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.

Eastern Europe

NRA News. Cam & Company. Sept. 17, 2018. Czech Republic Defies EU Gun Control Directive. Lawful Gun Owners Resent Being Targeted in Fight Against Terrorism.

NRA News. Cam & Company. Mar. 6, 2017. Czech Republic considers constitutionalizing right to arms. Kopel at 2:45:27.

NRA News. Cam & Company. Jan. 4, 2017. Czech Republic urges armed citizens to shoot terrorists.

How Gun Control Led to Genocide in this Small European Country. The story of Bosnia. Conservative Review. Aug. 8, 2016. by Jasmin Dolamic, former Ind. Inst. intern.

What is possible to do to prevent gun violence? Kopel interview on radio program along with Dmitry Fonaryov, President of the Russian Association of Bodyguards, and Daniel Vice of the Brady Campaign. Voice of Russia. May 20, 2011.

When Policy Kills. More deadly U.N. issues. The Srebrenica massacre and the U.N.'s disarmament policies. National Review Online. Jan. 27, 2003. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. In italiano.

As Goes Moldova... Threats to civil liberty, including gun registration. With Dennis Polhill. National Review Online. Sept. 11, 2000.

Communist Gun Control. By David B. Kopel. Gun control in Rumania and the rest of the Warsaw Pact. In italiano.

Ethiopia

The Other War in Ethiopia. Tech Central Station. Dec. 29, 2006. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. The destruction of the disarmed Anuak people of southwestern Ethiopia.

Finland

NRA News. Cam & Company. Finland Tightens Gun Law After School Shootings. June 14, 2011.

Germany

Alan Steinweis's bad history. NY Times op-ed denigrating Jewish resistance to the Nazis flubs history. Washington Post. Oct. 16, 2015.

"Gun Control in The Third Reich." by Stephen Halbrook. Book review. Nov. 2013.

Armed Resistance to the Holocaust. 19 Journal of Firearms & Public Policy 144 (2007). Final version in PDF. Earlier version in HTML. Earlier version in Polish/Polski.

Hitler's Control. The gun control lessons of Nazi history. National Review Online. May 22, 2003. With Richard Griffiths. In italiano. En français.

blog: Kristallnacht and Arms Control, 11/9/05.

Great Britain

Book

Gun Control in Great Britain: Saving Lives or Constricting Liberty? (Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago, Office of International Criminal Justice, 1992).

Scholarly articles and symposia

The Costs and Consequences of Gun Control. Cato Institute Policy Analysis no. 784 (Dec. 1, 2015). Discusses British gun confiscation.

The Posse Comitatus and the Office of Sheriff: Armed Citizens Summoned to the Aid of Law Enforcement. 104 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 671 (2015).

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.

The Gold Standard of Gun Control, 2 Journal of Law, Economics & Policy 417 (2006). Book review of Joyce Malcolm's "Guns and Violence: The English Experience." In PDF. In HTML. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

A Critique of Home Office Research Study 298 of 2006, Gun Crime: The market in and use of illegal firearms. By Colin Greenwood. April 2007. A careful dissection of a deeply flawed British government study promoting more repressive laws against gun owners, notwithstanding the failures of previous laws.

All the Way Down the Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England and Some Lessons for Civil Liberties in America. By Dave Kopel & Joseph Olson. 22 Hamline Law Review 399 (1999). PDF.

It Isn't About Duck Hunting: The British Origins of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. In-depth review of Joyce Malcolm's book To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right. 93 Michigan Law Review 1333 (1995).

Short articles

Britain’s Failed Weapons-Control Laws Show Why the Second Amendment Matters. National Review Online. August 28, 2018. With Vincent Harinam.

The Second Amendment versus anti-Catholicism. Washington Post. Nov. 20, 2015. James Madison expressly rejected anti-Catholic gun control laws; yet modern anti-gun advocates claim that these bigoted laws laws should be imposed on everyone.

English legal history and the right to carry arms. Washington Post. Oct. 31, 2015. English law in the 17th and 18th centuries allowed the peaceable carry of arms, and forbade carry in a deliberately terrifying manner.

British gun controls and the quasi-independence of some small islands. Volokh Conspiracy, 1/23/06.

Defending the Home. MSNBC.com, Dec. 6, 2004. Home defense against burglary in Great Britain, the fox-hunting ban, and the Civil Contingencies Act.

The British Gun Closet. Slowly, the country is learning the hard way. National Review Online. May 14, 2003. In italiano.

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"?

Mad Cows, Madder Government. National Review Online. June 12, 2001. With Paul Gallant and Joanne Eisen.

Lost Battles, Lost Rights. How the British lost their right to arms in the twentieth century, by imposing one "reasonable" law on another, until the right was extinguished. Pamphlet. July 16, 1999.

Fear in Britain. They have no guns -- so they have a lot of crime. National Review Online. July 18, 2000. With Drs. Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen. This article was cited in a letterwhich 18 state Attorneys General wrote to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft commending his recognition of the Second Amendment as an individual right.

blog: Banning Kitchen Knives, 5/27/05. Police instructions about not resisting criminals, 5/15/03.

Hungary

Hungarian Weapons Law of May 2004. English translation and explanation, plus Hungarian text.

India

blog: Bellicose Women, Part XXIX, India,10/14/05.

Iraq

blog: Guns and Iraqi civilians, 4/21/03.

Ireland

Ireland on the Brink. A decades-long battle for firearm freedom could soon end in the worst way possible for Irish gun owners. America's 1st Freedom. April 2011.

Israel

The Story of Hanukkah. Epoch Times. Dec. 2, 2018.

Ancient Hebrew Militia Law. 90 Denver University Law Review Online 175 (2013).

Arms Trade Treaty's Purpose: Block Arms Sales to Israel. Volokh.com. January 30, 2009.

To Your Tents, O Israel! The history of ancient kingdom of Israel, and how the people created a strong central government for national security, but then found that their own liberties were endangered by that government. And the lessons that the American colonists and Founders drew from Israel's experience. Liberty, April 2007. PDF.

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.

A Rich Tradition. Jewish war lessons. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2002.

blog: Global gun prohibition lobby urges ban on arms sales to Israel, 10/17/06. Armed Israeli teacher stops terrorist attack on high school, 5/29/02. Israeli gun sales soar after shoe salesman shoots Palestinian terrorist in restaurant, 4/7/02. Suicide bomber flees Karkur after being confronted by armed citizen, 3/11/02.

Italy

Why is this Woman Smiling? Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest painters of all time, also contributed to society something far more valuable than the Mona Lisa--the first self-igniting firearm. America's 1st Freedom, Oct. 2005. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Getting with It. Italians move toward protecting self-defense. National Review Online. May 7, 2002. With Carlo Stagnaro.

Gianni, Get Your Gun. The surprising emergence of gun rights in Italy. Chronicles. Dec. 2001. With Carlo Stagnaro.

Jamaica

Tighter Regulation Needed of Small Weapons, Jamaica tells General Assembly. Also, amicus brief on right to carry in Illinois. NRA News. Sept. 28, 2011.

Jamaica Farewell. The consequences of gun prohibition. National Review Online. Sept. 10, 2001. With Paul Gallant and Joanne Eisen.

Jamaican War Zone. An island of intoxicative beauty? Try again, mon. With Dr. Paul Gallant, & Dr. Joanne Eisen. National Review Online. Oct. 30, 2000

Japan

Japanese Gun Control. 2 Asia-Pacific Law Review 26 (1993). Español.

Japan's low gun crime rate. The Briefing. Monocle 24. London. Jan. 10, 2018. Begins at 18:30.

Why Japan is so safe from guns. A society utterly different from our own. NY Daily News. Dec. 19, 2012.

An Open Letter to the People of Japan (gun prohibition). Liberty, May 2000.

Japan: Gun Control and People Control. The American Rifleman. Dec. 1988.

Jordan

blog: Bellicose Women, Part XXX, 10/14/05.

Kenya

Good guys with guns: Former Interpol chief Ron Noble on the Westgate Mall mass shooting. Washington Post. May 16, 2016.

Human Rights and Gun Confiscation. 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 383 (2008). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Examines human rights abuses in gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda, and in South Africa's quasi-confiscatory licensing law. Also provides the most complete collection ever presented of international survey data about why people in various countries own guns.

Human Rights Atrocities: The Consequences of United Nations Gun Confiscation in East Africa. By Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant, and Joanne Eisen. How U.N.-backed gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda have led to murder, torture, and arson, and have turned tens of thousands of pastoral tribespeople into starving refugees. Issue Backgrounder. In PDF. In HTML.

United Nations Gun Confiscation. Kopel discusses the international gun prohibition movement, and his new paper about human rights abuses in the gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda. Podcast in MP3.

Kenya proposes execution of gun owners. NRA News. 7:39. YouTube.

Kuwait

blog: Kuwaiti Gun Control, 11/18/05.

Mali

Up in Flames. Mali's gun show. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2003. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Mexico

 

Journals and monographs

Mexico's Gun Control Laws: A Model for the United States? 18 Texas Review of Law & Politics 27 (2013).

Mexico's Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives. 13 Engage 43 (no. 1, Mar. 2012).

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.

Gun laws of Mexico. Entry from Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law. Español: Leyes del Arme de México.

Fast and Furious

Fast and Furious explained. iVoices.org podcast. June 21, 2012. 47 minutes. MP3.

Calderon misfires on U.S. gun control. Mexican president scatters blame far and wide for 'Fast and Furious' mistakes. Washington Times. April 12, 2012.

Why you should be furious about Fast & Furious. A detailed timeline of BATFE's program that supplied over 2,000 guns to Mexican cartels. America's 1st Freedom. Jan. 2012.

Operation "Fast & Furious." Kopel explains the federal government's gunrunning fiasco. Devil's Advocate. CPT 12, July 22, 2011.

Briefs

Smith & Wesson v. Mexico. No. 23-1141. Supreme Court amicus brief of the National Rifle Association, FPC Action Foundation, and Independence Institute. Merits brief on Mexico's abusive, unlawful lawsuit against American firearms manufacturers. Dec. 3, 2024.

Smith & Wesson v. Mexico, No. 23-1141 (U.S. Sup. Ct., May 22, 2024). Amicus brief for National Rifle Association and Independence Institute in suppport of cert. petition. Mexico is copying the malicious tactics of the American gun prohibition lobby in previous decades, with meritless litigation designed to destroy the firearms industry through litigation expenses. Mexico's crime problem is self-inflicted by its corrupt government and its nullification of the Mexican Constitution right to arms. Claims that a large percentage of Mexican crime guns are American, or recently acquired in America, are provably false.

Other

Mexico Comes Knocking. A seemingly ridiculous plan by the Mexican government to sue U.S. gunmakers for drug-cartel violence south of the border could spell doom for America's firearm industry. America's 1st Freedom. Oct. 2011.

Campaign Seeks to Halt US-Mexico Arms Flow. Petition drive by anti-American leftist group, and others, wrongly blames U.S. for Mexican crime guns. NRA News. May 31, 2011. 6:50 video, YouTube.

It's Howdy Bloomy Time. Biased media coverage of a report about Mexican guns from Michael Bloomberg's gun control lobby. America's 1st Freedom. Dec. 2010.

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.

The Whole World is Watching. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's potential effect on Second Amendment rights. Discusses Mexican government push for an American ban on so-called "assault weapons." America's 1st Freedom. March 2009. PDF.

New Zealand

A Moriori Lesson. A brief history of pacifism. National Review Online. Apr. 11, 2003. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Philippines

blog: Armed citizens against terrorist kidnappers, 3/10/02.

Poland

Alan Steinweis's bad history. NY Times op-ed denigrating Jewish resistance to the Nazis flubs history. Washington Post. Oct. 16, 2015.

Unarmed Jews defeat mass murder: Revolts at the extermination camps. Washington Post. Oct. 12, 2015.

The Warsaw ghetto uprising: Armed Jews vs. Nazis. Washington Post. Oct. 10, 2015.

Armed Resistance to the Holocaust. 19 Journal of Firearms & Public Policy 144 (2007). Final version in PDF. Earlier version in HTML. Earlier version in Polish/Polski.

Today in history: "Juden…waffen!" Volokh.com. April 19, 2011.

Armed Jews Week. The Jews who fought the Nazis embodied the spirit of Hanukkah. MSNBC.com, Dec. 9, 2004.

Russian Federation

(See also the Russian language page.)

Weapons Laws of the Russian Federation. Independence Institute Issue Paper number 7-2012. May 2012. By Margot van Loon. Full translation of the statutes into English.

South Africa

Human Rights and Gun Confiscation. 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 383 (2008). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Examines human rights abuses in gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda, and in South Africa's quasi-confiscatory licensing law. Also provides the most complete collection ever presented of international survey data about why people in various countries own guns.

South Africa's Deadly Disaster. The continuing saga of South Africa's dwindling gun owners provides a case study of what gun-banners want to do in the United States. America's 1st Freedom. March 2010.

South African Stupidity. Disarming the citizenry is not the answer. National Review Online. Oct. 11, 2000.With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.

Sudan

Is Resisting Genocide a Human Right? 81 Notre Dame Law Review 1275 (2006). Conducting an in-depth study of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and also discussing other genocides, this article details the inadequacy of many of the international community's response to genocides, such as "targeted sanctions" or international peacekeeping forces. Examining international legal authorities such as the Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Court of Justice, the article demonstrates that groups which are being subjected to genocide have a legal right of self-defense. International treaties, Security Council arms embargoes, or national gun control laws cannot lawfully be enforced in a manner which prevents self-defense resistance to a genocide in progress, because under international law, the prohibition against any form of complicity in genocide takes legal precedence over lesser laws. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

The Guns of Sudan. Gun confiscation in South Sudan makes a bad situation for human rights even worse. The New Ledger. July 7, 2009. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Gun Bans & Genocide: The Disarming Facts. How gun control has been used in the Darfur, Sudan genocide. Genocide and United Nations disarmament in other African countries. America's 1st Freedom, August 2006. PDF. HTML.

Avoiding Genocide. The right to bear arms could have saved Sudan. National Review Online. Aug. 18, 2004. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Switzerland

Swiss Mess: Homeland defense, the wrong way. Gun control forces attempt to exploit the September murder. National Review Online. Oct. 30, 2001. With Stephen Halbrook & Carlo Stagnaro. In italiano.

Book review of Target Switzerland. The American Enterprise magazine. Jan./Feb. 1999.

The Swiss and Their Guns. With Stephen D'Andrilli. American Rifleman, Feb. 1990. (Entered in full into the Congressional Record by N.H. Rep. Dick Bass.).

Thailand

Buddhists and Moslems arm against terrorists. In Thailand. Volokh.com. September 21, 2009.

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.

Uganda

Human Rights and Gun Confiscation. 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 383 (2008). With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. Examines human rights abuses in gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda, and in South Africa's quasi-confiscatory licensing law. Also provides the most complete collection ever presented of international survey data about why people in various countries own guns.

Human Rights Atrocities: The Consequences of United Nations Gun Confiscation in East Africa. By Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant, and Joanne Eisen. How U.N.-backed gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda have led to murder, torture, and arson, and have turned tens of thousands of pastoral tribespeople into starving refugees. Independence Institute Issue Backgrounder. In PDF. In HTML.

We're from the Government, and We're Here to Help You. The Ugandan government perpetrates ethnocide against the Karamajong tribes, under the pretext of gun control. America's 1st Freedom. Jan. 2008.

Guns Don't Kill People, Gun Control Kills People. Uganda terrorizes its own citizens under the auspices of a UN gun control mandate. Reason Online. Feb. 23, 2007. With Joanne D. Eisen & Paul Gallant.

United Nations Gun Confiscation. Kopel discusses the international gun prohibition movement, and his new paper about human rights abuses in the gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda. Podcast in MP3.

Disarming Uganda. International gun-control nonsense. National Review Online. Dec. 11, 2002. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.

Blog: Guns and the liberation of women, 4/21/03.

Venezuela

In the wake of a gun ban, Venezuela sees rising homicide rate. Including murder of dissidents by government. The Hill. Apr. 19, 2018. with Vincent Harinam.

Venezuelan Government Suspends Gun Imports and Sales for One Year. NRA News. Mar. 12, 2012.

Vietnam

Firearms Law of Vietnam. Full translation of Vietnamese arms statute, plus Vietnamess text, and historical background. Independence Institute Issue Paper no. 5-2017. By Tien Thuy Dinh.

Zimbabwe

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.

Ripe for Genocide. Zimbabwe. National Review Online. Feb. 13, 2001. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.


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