About once a month, Dave Kopel produces a free e-mail Newsletter containing short summaries and links to important new research and writing involving the Second Amendment and firearms policy. The newsletter also reports on Kopel's latest writing.
The content of this newsletter is produced by the Second Amendment Project at the Independence Institute, a think tank in Golden, Colorado. The newsletter is electronically distributed by the Second Amendment Foundation in Bellevue, Washington. Thus, the Second Amendment Foundation will be given your e-mail address.
Archive of past issues.
Kopel's Second Amendment Newsletter. November 6, 2001.
The Second Amendment Project is based at the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank in Golden, Colorado.
http://www.davekopel.com/2damendment.htm
This newsletter is distributed by the Second Amendment
Foundation, in Bellevue, Washington,
http://www.saf.org
1. New Kopel articles. Switzerland, Emerson, and book review of
"Shots in the Dark" by William Vizzard.
2. The War on Terrorism. More and more armed citizens. Another Janet
Reno cover-up.
3. Second Amendment Legal Issues: More on Emerson. Akhil Amar.
4. CPSC air gun recall.
5. New Orleans voters overwhelmingly reject another term for Mayor
Marc Morial, father of the frivolous municipal anti-gun lawsuits.
6. Thanksgiving. We Gather Together.
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.
http://www.nationalreview.com/weekend/books/books-kopel110301.shtml
Swiss Mess: Homeland defense, the wrong way. Gun control forces
attempt to exploit the September murders.
National Review Online. Oct. 30, 2001.
With Stephen Halbrook & Carlo Stagnaro.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel103001.shtml
A Right of the People: The Meaning of the Emerson Decision.
National Review Online. Oct. 25, 2001.
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel102501.shtml
Coming soon on National Review Online:
* What the Taliban have in common with David Koresh.
* Imagine a world without guns.
a. Armed Against Terrorism
By George F. Will
Sunday, November 4, 2001; Page B07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33026-2001Nov2.html
b. Volunteers: Have Gun, See Sheriff in Oregon
New York Times.
November 3, 2001
"The sheriff of Clatsop County in rural Oregon has
proposed organizing armed volunteers to help deal with the threat of
terrorism.
"We cannot handle the responsibility without the help of our citizens,"
the sheriff, John Raichl, said.
His proposal calls for up to 125 volunteers to be deployed in pairs to
remote critical sites.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/03/national/03POSS.html
(requires free registration)
c. Terrorists Attacked Gun Control Movement
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
FoxNews.com
How September 11 has set back the gun prohibition groups
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,37955,00.html
d. MORE BELLICOSE WOMEN:
From Glenn Harlan Reynolds' excellent weblog, InstaPundit, Nov. 5
http://www.instapundit.com
"One of literally hundreds like it I've gotten in response to this
weekend's FoxNews column:
Well prior to September 11, 2001 I was beginning to go with gun control.
NO WAY
ANYMORE! I went last week and bought a Dan Wesson 357 mag. and soon I plan
to
buy a legal semi-automatic rifle. If trouble gets closer to home, I am not
going out
quietly. I may be a female but I know how to shoot a weapon. The gun
control, fearful
crowd, can go tremble in a hole somewhere. Safety yes, locked up, yes,
responsible
handling of weapons, yes, out of the reach of children, yes. But real
close to momma.
Dale the female, Pennsylvania, USA - God Bless America and her soldiers."
e. Cars at Airport Subject to Search
Reporter: Dan MacDonald
WKRN-TV, Oct. 22, 2001
"When David Leland dropped his car off at valet
parking at the airport, he says he did not realize he had left a rifle in
his trunk. The attendant found it and called police. The next thing you
know
Leland was being questioned by authorities. His gun was taken, and he was
with illegal possession of a firearm, a misdemeanor."
[Note: This is plainly wrong, since there is no law against possessing
firearms outside the weapons-free zones of airports.]
http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=518428&nav=1ugB5Isg
f. Inside Report: Saving Janet Reno
By Robert Novak
Syndicated columnist
October 27, 2001
"Efforts to launch a Pearl Harbor-style commission to investigate roots
of the Sept. 11 disaster are being impeded by efforts to protect Janet
Reno,
who is running an uphill campaign for governor of Florida."
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/
a. Second Amendment's right in reality and in court
by Phyllis Schlafly
Oct. 31, 2001
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/
phyllisschlafly/ps20011031.shtml
b. Guns and the Constitution:
Telling The Right Second Amendment Story
by Akhil & Vikram Amar.
Nov. 2, 2001.
Says that true source of individual right under the Second
Amendment is the Fourteenth Amendment, intended to allow
Freedmen to defend their homes from Klansmen.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20011102.html
c. Federal Court of Appeals Says the Second Amendment
Places Limits on Gun Control Legislation
By Michael Dorf
Oct. 31, 2001
Columbia Law professor argues against the individual rights view.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20011031.html
d. The Best Security of a Free State
By Timothy Wheeler
Claremont Institute
October 19, 2001
http://www.claremont.org/precepts/306.cfm
a. Press release for Consumer Product Safety Commission lawsuit against
Daisy
http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml02/02029.html
b. SUMMARY OF THE STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER GALL
IN OPPOSITION TO ISSUANCE OF ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINT
AGAINST DAISY MANUFACTURING COMPANY
Oct. 30, 2001
I voted against the Complaint because:
I. PROCEDURAL IRREGULARITIES
The confidential draft Complaint was furnished to reporters yesterday,
before vote took
place today.
Complaint filed immediately after vote today instead of giving Daisy the
customary short
time to settle prior to filing the Complaint. Timetable driven by today's
2:00 PM press
conference.
No expert reports or detailed financial information about the company were
provided to
Commission.
MANY ALLEGED DEFECTS ARE GENERIC TO AIR GUNS
Gravity feed mechanisms
Automatically resetting safeties.
Warnings provided to purchasers in labels and operating manuals.
These issues should be addressed through voluntary standards, or
regulation, not compliance action directed at one company.
LODGING PROBLEM MAY BE UNIQUE TO DAISY BUT IS NOT A
SUBSTANTIAL PRODUCT HAZARD.
A. Commission's compliance staff conducted six separate investigations of Daisy BB guns between l981 and l999. Commission considered petitions five times between l975 and l989 and a special staff project and report on air gun safety was completed in l997.
B. Experience in use reveals 3 deaths and 47 serious injuries over 30 years and nearly 7.5 million examples. (Contrast 250 deaths per year associated with the use of bicycles by children.)
C. Commission staff unable to replicate phenomenon despite repeated attempts to do so. Commission has repeatedly looked at airguns in general and Daisy BB guns in particular and has not found a defect.
(Vote was on the basis of the record developed by the staff and presented
to the
Commission as of October 30, 2001. A record will now be developed by an
Administrative Law Judge, and future decisions will be based on that
record.)
***************
COMMON SENSE
***************
"Morial's Million"
I could have saved him more than a million dollars
. . . if only he'd asked me.
Mayor Marc Morial of New Orleans wanted to stay on
for a third term, seeing as how he had done such a
marvelous job, except for the public schools,
which were a disaster. So he also needed to stay
on to fix that little problem.
Well, anyway, the good mayor wondered if voters
wouldn't mind too awfully much if just he
personally could be exempted from the two-term
limit under the city's charter. Just him. Settling
the mayor's question actually required placing a
referendum on the ballot and changing the charter.
So Morial set about raising some money from his
friends to do this . . . to exempt a great leader
like himself from the term limits law that had
after all been intended for mere mortals.
Well, voters gave the mayor an answer, all right,
but not until Morial had spent $1.3 million
dollars explaining just how much they couldn't
live without him. He outspent the "NO" side of the
question by ten to one. He even tried the one
about how after the terrorist attacks we ought not
risk new leadership.
Voters weren't buying it. By 61 to 39 percent,
they decided to keep term limits just the way they
are. Whether they like the mayor or not, most want
to let someone else have a chance. The New Orleans
Times-Picayune pointed out, "The margin of defeat
was even more resounding than many political
experts had predicted."
In New Orleans voters don't accept the notion that
elected officials are indispensable. They're going
on with the business of America.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob
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One of America's greatest Thanksgiving hymns is "We Gather Together"--a song which never loses its relevance. The hymn was first sung by Dutch settlers around 1625. The song was translated in English by Edward Kremser in 1877, and has been an American standard ever since.
Lyrics vary from songbook to songbook. The lyrics below are from the New American Songbook, by Marx & Ann Oberndorffer (Chicago: Hall & McCreary, 1941).
"We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing,
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,
Sing praises to His name - He forgets not His own."Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine,
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side, all glory be Thine."We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader in battle,
And pray that Thou still our defender wilt be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation!
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!"
As we face the tribulations of the new war, let us remember that
decent people of all faiths, from all over the world, are
gathering together to eliminate the scourge of bin Ladenism
and other modern versions of Hitlerism. Pro-Second Amendment
activists should be thankful that their hard work in 2000
was decisive in electing George Bush President of the United
States in November 2000 – and this result is beneficial not
just to the Second Amendment rights of Americans, but to the freedom
of all mankind. The Free World now has the right leader in a time
of tremendous peril. Your work for Second Amendment
rights is yielding a harvest far greater than any of us could have
predicted.
