Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Project is based at the
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Dave Kopel, Stephen P.
Halbrook, Alan Korwin
Bloomfield Pres
2010
http://www.gunlaws.com/supreme.htm
Our out-of-print, 672-page unabridged-through-2003 Supreme Court Gun Cases is now available as a fully searchable CD or emailed set of files, at a fraction of the original cost. Even if you don't get one, the page for this item has a ton of amazing stuff and case summaries.
David Kopel, Theodore Bromund
and Ray Walser
The Heritage Foundation
May 19, 2010
"President Barack Obama has called on the Senate to ratify CIFTA, the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacture of and Trafficking in Firearms, but the convention poses serious prudential risks to liberties guaranteed by the First and Second Amendments. The convention appears to be an end run around domestic obstacles to gun control. Furthermore, ratification of the convention would undermine U.S. sovereignty by legally binding it to fulfill obligations that some current signatories already disregard. The U.S. would be best served by continuing existing programs, cooperating with other countries on a bilateral basis, and making and enforcing its own laws to combat the traffic in illicit arms."
Dave Kopel with Clayton Cramer
Santa Clara Law Review
2010
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1542544
"Cases on the right to arms in state constitutions can provide useful guidance for courts addressing Second Amendment issues. Although some people have claimed that state courts always use a highly deferential version of 'reasonableness,' this article shows that many courts have employed rigorous standards, including the tools of strict scrutiny, such as overbreadth, narrow tailoring, and less restrictive means. Courts have also used categoricalism (deciding whether something is inside or outside the right) and narrow construction (to prevent criminal laws from conflicting with the right to arms). Even when formally applying 'reasonableness,' many courts have used reasonableness as a serious, non-deferential standard of review. District of Columbia v. Heller teaches that supine standards of review, such as deferring to the mere invocation of 'police power,' are inappropriate in Second Amendment interpretation. This article surveys important state cases from the Early Republic to the present, and explains how they may be applied to the Second Amendment." This is the final version of the article, as sent to the printer.David B Kopel
Working Papers Series
April 15, 2010
This article presents a full English translation of the Mexican gun control statute, and of past and present versions of the Mexican Constitution's right to arms guarantee. In addition, the article provides background information about how Mexico's gun laws operate in practice, and about the problem of arms smuggling into Mexico.
Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant, and
Joanne T. Eisen
114 Penn State Law Review, No. 3, 2010, Final
Published Version
Advocates of the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) promise that it will prevent the flow of arms to human rights violators. This Article first examines the ATT, and observes that the ATT, if implemented as promised, would require dozens of additional arms embargoes, including embargoes on much of Africa. The article then provides case studies of the current supply of arms to the dictatorship in Zimbabwe and to the warlords in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Article argues that the ATT would do nothing to remediate the conditions which have allowed so many arms to be acquired by human rights violators. The ATT would have no more effective force than the embargoes that are already imposed by the UN Security Council; therefore states, including China, which violate current Security Council embargoes could just as well violate ATT embargoes. Accordingly, the ATT is a distraction, and human rights activists should instead examine alternative methods of addressing the problem of arms in the hands of human rights violators. 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.
David Kopel
The Denver Post
April 24, 2010
"Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York City, has been funding a national advertising campaign to promote his congressional gun control bill. Monday's Denver Post featured a full-page ad urging Sen. Mark Udall to support the Bloomberg bill; Colorado's other senator, Michael Bennet, is already a co-sponsor.
"According to the ad, the Bloomberg bill would nationalize Colorado's rule about background checks at gun shows. But in fact, only a small fraction of the Bloomberg bill addresses the issue of background checks. The rest of the bill has a much more aggressive agenda."
Dave Kopel
America's First Freedom
May, 2010
"After the March 2 oral argument in the case of McDonald v. Chicago, most of us are optimistic that the Supreme Court will require state and local governments to respect Second Amendment rights."
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 19, 2010
"We argue that the CIFTA gun control convention, which was drafted by the Organization of American States, and which President Obama has urged the Senate to ratify, would harm First and Second Amendment rights. We suggest that the convention offers no practical benefits to the United States."
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 17, 2010
Dave here offers his appraisal and analysis of the NRA's annual members meeting, held in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dave's attended over the last two decades, and offers a report on how the convention has changed over the years, with some thoughts about the NRA's past and present.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 12, 2010
Michael Bellesiles, proven academic fraud, now offers a new book upon this pivotal year. Dave joins with Eugene Volokh in recommending a reliable book in its place.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 11, 2010
Dave here offers cases and sources to explain the sudden reversal of the Colorado Community Colleges on their policy of excluding licensed concealed carry from their campuses.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 11, 2010
Dave shares some very unsettling disclosures about the way unelected bureaucrats and staffers constructed the permanent Clinton arms import ban of 1998.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 5, 2010
Dave collects sources and links here describing the chain of events that forced the CSU Board to revoke their widely-publicized ban on licensed concealed carry upon their campuses.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 3, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/05/03/state-court-standards-of-review-for-the-right-to-arms-2/
Dave offers a summary of the analysis of State court decisions that he and Clayton Cramer have provided in the Santa Clara Review article.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 28, 2010
"April 27 was the tenth annual 'Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum,' held in Chicago. Over a hundred mayors and other local government leaders assembled to discuss global issues. As reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, 'Daley convinced more than a dozen of his counterparts from around the world to approve a resolution urging "redress against the gun industry through the courts of the world" in The Hague.'
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 26, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/26/deacons-for-defense-and-justice/
Dave here links to the New York Times obituary of Robert Hicks, one of the leaders of the Deacons for Defense and Justice in Louisiana in the 1960s, as a good example of how Second Amendment rights were used to protect Fourteenth Amendment rights.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 20, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/20/big-first-amendment-win-in-united-states-v-stevens/
The Supreme Court has struck down a federal ban on some videos containing depictions of hunting, Dave offers several detailed reasons to laud the decision.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 20, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/20/big-first-amendment-win-in-united-states-v-stevens/
Upon the sad anniversary of the disaster, Dave recalls his book with Paul Blackman on the Clinton administration's handling of the entire Branch Davidian affair to the attention of The Volokh Conspiracy's readers.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 19, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/19/the-clinton-terror-bill/
With former president Clinton exploiting the unhappy memory of the Oklahoma City Bombing to suppress criticism of his party, Dave recalls to memory his own earlier writings discussion the Clinton administration's lack of regard for the niceties of civil liberties enforcement.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 16, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/16/mexicos-federal-law-of-firearms-explosives/
Dave offers a brief précis of his larger article in preparation on the subject of Mexico's regulation of firearms and explosives.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 15, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/15/major-legal-win-for-students-for-concealed-carry-on-campus/
"In brief: Colorado's licensing statute for carrying a concealed handgun for lawful protection is explicitly preemptive. The University of Colorado bans concealed carry anyway, arguing that there is an implicit exception applicable to CU. The Mountain States Legal Foundation brings a suit on behalf of SCCC. The trial court dismisses for failure to state a claim. The Court of Appeals unanimously reverses the dismissal, and remands the case for further proceedings." There are links to the case and organizations involved and Dave's own writings were cited in the decision, which can be found here (Colo. App. 2010).
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 14, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/19/the-clinton-terror-bill/
Dave cites with approval Michael Bane's podcast on Down Range Radio on this subject, and upon a proposal seconded by Colorado Senator Mark Udall that revenues from the 11% federal excise tax on guns and ammunition should be used to develop public shooting ranges.
David Kopel
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 11, 2010
http://volokh.com/2010/04/11/potential-supreme-court-nominee-records-on-the-second-amendment/
Dave here lists and rates the entire gamut of President Obama's potential choices for the Supreme Court, ranking them by their views on the Right to Arms.
Press Release
The National Shooting Sports Foundation
March 30, 2010
"The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms industry -- has learned that the United Nations has filed its first firearms trace request. The move by the United Nations, which has long advocated for civilian disarmament, raised concerns from the NSSF."
Ozgur Ogret
Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey)
April 11, 2010
A gun store in Turkey is filling a void, with lawyers on staff to help Turks acquire firearms in compliance with the nation's registration laws. Turks have of late been going abroad to purchase firearms.
New Vision (Uganda)
Barbara Among
April 11, 2010
"The number of Ugandans applying for guns for personal protection is increasing rapidly, according to internal affairs minister Kirunda Kivejinja. The minister on Monday said before 2006, the Government licenced an average of three guns in a year, but currently, his office has received about 1,000 applications. "
Press Release
British Association for Shooting and Conservation (UK)
April 10, 2010
"There has been a surge in new shotgun and firearm certificates issued by the police, according to an analysis of latest figures from the Home Office by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC). The figures, which relate to 2008/2009, show the highest year-on-year rises in certificates on issue for both shotguns and firearms since records began in 1968."
Jim Geraghty
National Review Online
May 17, 2010
Jim Geraghty offers a pungent and pointed analysis of how the assorted Republican political figures displayed themselves at the recent NRA Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, as both supporters of the Right to Arms and as future prospects as presidential candidates.
Press Release
The National Shooting Sports Foundation
February 27, 2010
"On college campuses across the country, men and women are taking up target shooting in increasing numbers. From Harvard to Jacksonville University to the University of Colorado, the shooting sports are 'in' as students discover how they can enjoy these safe, fun activities with their friends. To encourage this growth trend, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, trade association for the firearms and shooting sports industry, last year began providing grants through its Collegiate Shooting Sports Initiative to support the development of varsity teams for those students interested in competition and create clubs for students interested in the recreational and social benefits of target shooting." The web page for the Collegiate Shooting Sports initiative is here.
Dan Gifford
Big Hollywood
May 17, 2010
Gifford relates multiple examples from Hollywood insiders of the pervasive bias against the Right to Arms in 'Tinseltown,' and the difficulties his sources have encountered trying to get out any other message than the approved one of hostility to civilian firearms ownership.
Brendan Fitzgerald
C-Ville Weekly (Charlottesville, VA)
May 10, 2010
"As of July 1, any public elementary school in Virginia that opts to teach gun safety will need to know the name of Eddie Eagle, 22-year-old mascot of the National Rifle Association's GunSafe Program. However, at least one school in Albemarle County has known his name for years. The General Assembly recently approved a version of House Bill 1217, which allows local school boards to offer gun safety programs in elementary schools so long as they reinforce the policies of the NRA program--namely, Eddie's mantra of 'Stop! Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult.' "
Bob Owens
Pajamas Media
May 15, 2010
Owens offers an interesting explanation for the ongoing ammunition shortage, differing from conventional wisdom about nervous citizens stockpiling ammunition in advance of expected renewed Federal efforts to restrict civilian firearms ownership.
Nick Anderson
The Washington Post
May 19, 2010
"Virginia Tech failed to comply with a federal law that requires timely warning of safety threats to the campus community after Seung Hui Cho's deadly shooting spree began in April 2007, according to a preliminary review by the U.S. Education Department released Tuesday."
Steve Chapman
The Chicago Tribune
May 16, 2010
New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg's bill forbidding firearms sales to anyone on the terrorist 'Watch List' would put the civil rights of United States citizens at the discretion of distant, anonymous bureaucrats using criteria neither delineated nor standardized.
Brian Walsh and Tiffany Joslyn
Special Report for the Heritage Foundation and the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
May 5, 2010
"According to several scholars and legal researchers, Congress is criminalizing everyday conduct at a reckless pace. This study provides further evidence in support of that finding. Members of the 109th Congress proposed 446 non-violent criminal offenses and Congress enacted 36 of them. These totals do not include the many offenses concerning firearms, possession or trafficking of drugs or pornography, immigration violations, or intentional violence. The sheer number of criminal offenses proposed demonstrates why so many of them were poorly drafted and never subjected to adequate deliberation and oversight."
Adam Lisberg
The New York Daily News
April 21, 2010
"Mayor Bloomberg's gun control group is dropping more than $250,000 on cable TV ads featuring surveillance video from the Columbine High School massacre to urge the Senate to put new restrictions on gun sales."
Carrie Levine
BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times
May 17, 2010
"The National Rifle Association, already known as a lobbying powerhouse, has added the former chief of staff to a key 'Blue Dog' Democrat to its roster of outside advocates. Vickie Walling, a former chief of staff to Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) who is now a managing director at Prime Policy Group, will lobby for the NRA on campaign finance reform legislation and Second Amendment rights for D.C. residents, according to a lobbying registration filed Friday."
Gary Fields
The Wall Street Journal
May 17, 2010
Fields does a full investigation of the District's 'obstacle course' to its citizens seeking to enjoy the Right to Arms restored to them by the Heller decision. The District's government is making no secret of its active efforts to continue to hinder their citizens from enjoying this particular civil right.
Ashby Jones
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog
May 17, 2010
This article is a short summary of the one directly above, describing Fields's methodology in making his determinations about the District's city government's continuing fight against civilian firearms ownership.
Paul Davenport and Jonathan J.
Cooper
The Associated Press
April 16, 2010
"Republican Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill making Arizona the third state allowing people without a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The bill she signed Friday afternoon takes effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends. That likely will put the effective date in July or August."
Howard Fischer
The Arizona Daily Star
February 23, 2010
Arizona has followed Montana's lead with legislation declaring that firearms manufactured and traded within the state's borders are exempt from Federal controls imposed by Congress under the 'Interstate Commerce' provision of the U.S. Constitution.
Press Release
The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative
Action
May 13, 2010
Governor Linda Lingle (R) has signed legislation preventing the state from confiscating the arms and ammunition of its citizens during times of natural disaster, and another bill providing civil immunity to an owner of real property using force in self-defense.
Rod Boshart
The Sioux City Journal (Iowa)
April 30, 2010
"Gun-rights advocates cheered loudly Thursday as Gov. Chet Culver eased an impediment for some seeking permits to carry a concealed weapon by approving a standardized process that will apply equally in all 99 Iowa counties beginning next Jan. 1."
Eugene Volokh
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 17, 2010
"...last year the Kansas Supreme Court held that existing Kansas law only allowed a defense for actual use of force, which didn't include threats; earlier this year, the Kansas Court of Appeals faithfully applied this principle. Fortunately, the Kansas Legislature (apparently prompted by the urging of gun rights advocates) passed a law that -- among other things -- makes clear that threats of force should qualify as justifiable self-defense, to the same extent that the actual use of force qualifies; and just yesterday, the governor signed the bill."
Bob Barr
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 17, 2010
Former Representative Barr suspects that New York City Mayor Bloomberg's sudden interest in surveillance cameras may have more to do with municipal revenue for minor infractions than public safety. Bloomberg recently toured the United Kingdom, where the cameras serve to allow remunerative fines of citizens for minor infractions.
Al Baker
The New York Times
May 14, 2010
"The Bloomberg administration announced on Friday that it was moving to simplify the process for New Yorkers to obtain gun permits, thus speeding up a set of byzantine licensing requirements that gun-rights advocates have long criticized as among the most restrictive in the country." The less charitably inclined suggest that Bloomberg is moving to forestall Heller-style action against New York City's intricate and obstructive gun restrictions.
Phil West
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
May 18, 2010
"Nine legislators who voted in committee in favor of an amendment to ban guns in bars but allow them in restaurants serving alcohol later voted to kill the same amendment on the House floor -- 2 1/2 hours after an NRA lobbyist told them the NRA opposed the amendment."
Richard Locker
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
May 8, 2010
"Gov. Phil Bredesen on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would let people with handgun-carry permits bring their guns into Tennessee bars and restaurants. House and Senate members, who approved the legislation by wide margins earlier this year, are expected to override Bredesen's veto."
Lawrence Pyne
The Burlington Free Press (Vermont)
March 11, 2010
"The new license will allow novice hunters to take to the field without having first completed a hunter education course, but with a catch: He or she must be accompanied at all times by a mentor 21 or older who holds a regular hunting license, and all game taken shall count against the mentor's bag limit."
Matt Gouras and Ben Neary
Associated Press (WY)
April 8, 2010
"The attorneys general for Utah and Wyoming said Wednesday that their states and South Dakota will join a federal lawsuit pending in Montana in which pro-gun groups are seeking to protect that state's sovereign right to regulate guns. The attorneys general confirmed that they plan to file a 'friend of the court' brief in the Montana case this week, and that South Dakota also plans to join them. All the states involved have enacted 'firearms freedom' laws that seek to exempt guns made and sold within their borders from federal regulation."
David Ingram
The National Law Journal
April 05, 2010
"A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., will have the chance to examine the latest version of the District of Columbia's gun restrictions, in a possible test of how to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 decision in D.C. v. Heller."
Eugene Volokh
The Volokh Conspiracy
April 14, 2010
"Felons can't lawfully possess guns — does it mean they can't even arrange for their sale, and that the court may just order them destroyed?" Volokh excerpts United States v. Brown (D.N.H. Apr. 9, 2010) and points out where the court disagreed with the government's affirmation of such confiscations.
Nathan Koppel and Vanessa
O'Connell
The Wall Street Journal
May 15, 2010
"One source of gun advocates' concern about Ms. Kagan is that she, as a Clinton aide, helped draft a presidential directive temporarily suspending imports of semiautomatic assault-type rifles. In the directive, the president raised concerns that the rifles weren't suitable for 'sporting purposes,' and thus could be restricted."
Greg Stohr and Kristin Jensen
Bloomberg Businessweek
May 13, 2010
"Elena Kagan said as a U.S. Supreme Court law clerk in 1987 that she was 'not sympathetic' toward a man who contended that his constitutional rights were violated when he was convicted for carrying an unlicensed pistol."
Jacob Sullum
Townhall.com
May 12, 2010
"Kagan's understanding of First Amendment law, described most fully in a 1996 University of Chicago Law Review article, suggests a tolerance for censorship when it is appropriately disguised by euphemisms."
Eugene Volokh
The Volokh Conspiracy
May 20, 2010
Volokh discusses the ongoing arguments about denying felons the right to vote as well as the right to arms--the former may be Constitutional, but it wouldn't justify the latter.
Informational Web Page
2010, Ongoing
This site allows the visitor to click upon a map of the United States, and research hunting and fishing regulations for all the states in the Union.
Informational Web Page
The University of Oklahoma
2010, Ongoing
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yet bombastic individual, see here:
Al Qaeda delenda est!
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