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December 23, on the
web.
Kopel's
Corner weblog. Latest: Advice for nervous legislators: campaign
door to door. Massachusetts election. Constitutional case against
Obamacare. Privileges or Immunities scholarship.
Kopel in the National Journal weekly poll of leading
political bloggers.
This week:
Jobs will would help Dems. Passage of Senate health bill would help
Republicans. Kopel explains it all.
Television and Radio
Colorado Inside-Out.
Fridays at 8 pm. KBDI
channel 12, Denver.
Episode archives.
Podcasts & Video
Dave Kopel's Second Amendment Podcast:
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.
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.
Aiming for Liberty:
Dave Kopel's New Book. Oct. 16, 2009, 11 minutes.
New Challenge to
McCain-Feingold. Kopel explains the Citizens United case, and the
Supreme Court's oral argument, to Jon Caldara. Sept. 15, 2009. 11:16.
Video:
Aiming for Liberty on Independent Thinking.
Kopel and Caldara discuss Kopel's new book. KBDI channel 12 TV, Denver. 1/2
hour. Nov. 27, 2009. YouTube.
Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
Playlist.
Ari Armstrong interviews Kopel at the Independence
Institute's 25 anniversary dinner, about the long-term role of the Independence
Institute. Nov. 19, 2009. 7 minutes.
YouTube.
Kenya proposes execution of gun owners. NRA News,
Nov. 15, 2009. 7:39.
YouTube.
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.
Other topics:
Josh Blackman interviews Kopel about the Supreme
Court brief. Nov. 23, 2009. Podcast.
The Privileges and Immunities clause. Kopel interviews Montana
law school professor Rob Natelson about Natelson's research on the
original meaning of the Article IV provision: "The Citizens of each
State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens
in the several States." July 23, 2009. 46 minutes.
MP3.
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.
Geeking It Up On Star Trek. Kopel and Jon Caldara discuss the
recent Star Trek movie, the original TV series, and their importance
in culture. MP3. 17 minutes.
MP3.
Important New Translation of Homer's Iliad. Homer's masterpiece
has been around since 800 BC, and adored ever since. Professor
Christian Kopff of CU-Boulder recently wrote the introduction to the
new translation of the Iliad; Kopel interviews him about why this
new version is important. May 29, 2009. 33 minutes.
MP3.
Watch this space for a new Second Amendment podcasts almost every week.
Podcast and
Multimedia archive
Books
Aiming for Liberty: The Past, Present, And Future of Freedom and
Self-Defense. Now available on
Amazon.com and
Barnes & Noble.
"Restoring the Right to Bear Arms" in the
Cato Handbook for Policymakers
(2008, 7th ed.). With Robert A. Levy.
The Heller Case: Gun Rights Affirmed!
(Bloomfield Press, 2008). With Alan Korwin
Aiming for Liberty (Merril Press, 2009,
forthcoming).
More books.
Organizations
Research Director of the
Independence Institute.
Adjunct Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law, Denver University,
Sturm College of Law.
Associate Policy Analyst,
Cato Institute.
Peer Reviewer,
Trends in Organized Crime,
Criminal Justice
Policy Review.
Contributing Editor, Information Technology & Telecom News
(Heartland Institute)
Contributing Editor,
Liberty magazine.
Contributing Editor,
Gun Week
Contributing Legal Editor, The
Firearms & Outdoor Trade.
Adjunct Professor of Law, New York
University, 1998-99. Course
syllabus.
Board of Directors,
Colorado Union of Taxpayers.
Website manager,
MaryLinks.
Background

(Ratings
explanation.)
Former Assistant Attorney General, State
of Colorado, Hazardous and solid waste enforcement.
University of Michigan Law School, J.D.
magna cum laude. Contributing Editor, Michigan Law Review.
Brown University, B.A. in History with
Highest Honors. National Geographic Society Prize for best History
thesis.
NRA-certified instructor for Pistol and for
Personal Protection. NRA-qualified Distinguished Expert rating for
Handgun.
Memberships:
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
(Life member), American
Association for Chinese Studies, American
Civil Liberties Union, American
Society of International Law,
International Association
of Genocide Scholars,
International Association of Penal Law,
International Criminal Law Network,
International Sociological Association,
Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society,
Mariological Society of
America, associate member.
National Council of Editorial Writers,
National Rifle Association
(Benefactor member),
National Society of Newspaper
Columnists, Triple Nine Society.
World Society of
Victimology, Zionist Organization of America.
Citations of Kopel in legal
opinions and law review articles.
Some popular older articles:
Severus Snape:
The Unlikely Hero of Harry Potter book 7.
Pусский/Russian.
Français.
Español.
Polski.
59 Deceits in
Fahrenheit 911.
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New Book!
Kopel's new book,
Aiming for Liberty: The Past, Present, And Future of Freedom and
Self-Defense, is now available for on
Amazon.com
and
Barnes & Noble.
Top rankings so far: #1 at Amazon in the
Gun Control category, and #1 in Civil Rights.
TV show about the book.
Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
Podcast
on the book. Oct. 16, 2009, 11 minutes.
Reviews:
Alphecca.
Bore Patch.
Snowflakes in Hell,
part 2.
In the Courts
*****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.)
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.
Kopel cited by the Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals, United States
v. Skoien (Nov. 18, 2009).
The Supreme Court Takes on Guns, Again. Reason.com. By
Brian Doherty, Oct. 1, 2009. Kopel explains some details on the cert. grant.
Kopel cited by Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
United States v. McCane,
No. 08-6235 (July 28, 2009). Concurring
opinion by Judge Tymkovich.
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.
Latest short articles
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.
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.
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.
Will the Supreme Court Set Speech Free? The Supreme Court,
censorship of political speech, and the case of Citizens United
v. FEC. America's 1st Freedom. America's 1st Freedom.
September 2009.
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.
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.
Latest Monographs & Journal articles
The Right to Arms in the
Living Constitution. 2010 Cardozo Law Review de Novo
99.
The Keystone of the
Second Amendment: Quakers, the Pennsylvania Constitution,
and the Questionable Scholarship of Nathan Kozuskanich. 19
Widener Law Journal (2010, forthcoming). With Clayton Cramer.
Connecting Laypeople with the Law through Blogs. Denver
University Law Review DUProcess, Oct. 19, 2009. Part of the
symposium
Legal Scholarship in the Internet Age.
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 (no. 3, 2010,
forthcoming). 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 (no. 1, 2009,
forthcoming).
PDF.
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
901 (2009). In the annual Tenth Circuit Survey.
PDF.
Unraveling Judicial Restraint: Guns, Abortion, and the Faux
Conservatism of J. Harvie Wilkinson, III. 25 Journal of
Law & Politics (University of Virginia) (forthcoming 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.
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
1
(2008). 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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Research Areas
Criminal Justice
Digital
Economy
Environment
Health,
Education & Welfare
History
International
Media Analysis
Religion
Right to Arms:
USA
Right to Arms: International
Terrorism
(and
Fahrenheit 911)
Waco
Favorite links.
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Массачусетс угрожает реформам Обамы.
Massachusetts Senate special election. 16.01.2010.
MP3.

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Archives
Newspaper
and magazine articles, 2007 to the present.
Newspaper and magazine articles,
2001-2006,
1986-2000.
Books, law review
articles, other scholarly publications.
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.
.
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.
To contact Kopel, write "david",
then "@", then "davidkopel.org"
Browse or shop at
Dave Kopel's Great Books and
Great Movies pages.
Dave's co-authors.
Become a supporter
of the Second Amendment Project at the Independence Institute
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