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New: Amicus brief in the Chicago handgun ban cases. Filed in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Feb. 5.

Latest short articles

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.

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.

Gun Control. Issue 24 of the "Change in Command" series, explaining how Americans view the impending inauguration of President Obama. January 2009.

Free Plaxico Burress. New York City's gun law is unconstitutional. Wall Street Journal. Dec. 4, 2008.

Kopel on the Heller case. Independence Institute amicus brief, in PDF.

Latest Monographs & Journal articles

Unofficial English translation of Mexican Federal Laws on Firearms and Explosives.

The Second Amendment in the Tenth Circuit: Three Decades of (Mostly) Harmless Error.  86 Denver University Law Review (no 3, 2009, forthcoming). Lead article in the annual Tenth Circuit Survey. PDF.

Unraveling Judicial Restraint: Guns, Abortion, and the Faux Conservatism of J. Harvie Wilkinson, III. Working paper. 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.

Poisoned Milk and the Poisoning of Democracy: Some Cautions about China Trade and Taiwan Sovereignty. Paper presented at the symposium �Taiwan�s New Approach: Opportunities and Challenges for President Ma Ying-jeou�s Government.� International House, University of Chicago, October 24, 2008. PDF.

The Natural Right of Self-defense: Heller's Lesson for the World. Symposium issue on the Heller case. 59 Syracuse Law Review 235 (2008).

Pacifist-Aggressives vs. the Second Amendment: An Analysis of Modern Philosophies of Compulsory Non-violence. 3 Charleston Law Review 1 (2008).

Christian Pacifism Before Constantine. Working paper. June 12, 2008. Much recent scholarship on early Christianity has emphasized the diversity of early Christian thought. This Paper presents evidence of diversity on early Christian belief and practice on the issue of pacifism. Notably, the diversity is found within orthodox Christianity itself. The claims of some modern writers that pre-Constantinian orthodox Christians were virtually unanimously pacifist are not correct. In fact, some but not all of the early Patristic writers were pacifists. A significant number of Christians, including saints, served in the Roman army. The Paper discusses the following writers: Justin Martyr, Marcion, Irenaeus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Julius Africanus, Origen, Cyprian, Arnobius, and Lactantius, and also examines other sources of information about the early church.

Taiwan's Presidential Elections: An Analysis of What Happened, and What May Happen Next. Independence Institute Issue Paper. April 2008. PDF. Examining how KMT candidate Ma Ying-Jeou won the election in part because of his strong defense of Taiwan's sovereignty and his appeal to Taiwan's growing national consciousness. The Issue Paper also analyzes the two referenda on UN membership.

"Is There a Relationship between Guns and Freedom? Comparative Results from 59 Nations." 13 Texas Review of Law & Politics (no. 1, 2008, forthcoming). With Carl E. 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.

"Evolving Christian attitudes towards personal and national self-defense." Working paper. Nov. 27. Analyzes changes in Christian thought about the use of force, from the 19th to the 21st century. PDF.

"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.

"Dhimmitude and Disarmament." 18 George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal 305 (2008). PDF.

"The Human Right of Self-Defense." 22 BYU Journal of Public Law 43 (2008). David Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. PDF.

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Kopel's Corner Weblog

"Good legal scholarship was absolutely crucial to this outcome. No justice is capable of producing the historical research and analysis upon which Justice Scalia relied. Brilliant as it was in its execution, his opinion rested on the work of many scholars of the Second Amendment, as I am sure he would be the first to acknowledge. ...

Due to the political orthodoxy among most constitutional law professors, some of the most important and earliest of this scholarship was produced by nonacademics like Don Kates, Stephen Halbrook, David Kopel, Clayton Cramer and others."

Randy E. Barnett, News Flash: The Constitution Means What It Says, Wall Street Journal, June 27, 2008, page A13.

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Great website: JerryKopel.com. My father's essays on Colorado and national politics, based on his 22 years of service as a Colorado State Representative.

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