The film is Assaulted: Civil Rights under Fire. It opened Friday in a limited theatrical release. Assaulted tells the modern and historic story of the Second Amendment, with a particular focus on civil rights. The events include Reconstruction, the Deacons for Defense, the Battle of Athens, the post-Katrina gun confiscations, and much more. The narrator is Ice-T. […]
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The “Pro-Gun” Provisions of Manchin-Toomey are Actually a Bonanza of Gun Control
The Toomey-Manchin Amendment which may be offered as soon as Tuesday to Senator Reid’s gun control bill are billed as a “compromise” which contain a variety of provisions for gun control, and other provisions to enhance gun rights. Some of the latter, however, are not what they seem. They are badly miswritten, and are in […]
Colorado Consensus on Gun Laws
In an article today for National Review Online, I detail how “Broadly supported post-Columbine reforms balance gun rights and gun control”: After the Columbine High School murders, Colorado enacted eight specific gun-law reforms. Three of these reforms are examples of what people usually call “gun control,” and five of them are in the “gun rights” […]
Weapons Laws of the Russian Federation
By David Kopel on June 12, 2012 4:05 pm in Guns, International Human Rights Law, Non-Firearms Arms, Registration, Right to carry, Russia, Uncategorized
For those of who have been waiting for an English translation of Russia’s arms statutes, your wait is over. Independence Institute intern Margot van Loon is the author of the new Issue Paper, Weapons Laws of the Russian Federation. Here is a synopsis: No permission or registration is needed to purchase and carry chemical defense […]
The Great Gun Control War of the 20th Century — And its Lessons for Gun Laws Today
By David Kopel on May 31, 2012 2:37 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, History, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Politics, Popular Constitutionalism, Registration, Right to carry, Supreme Court
This is the subject of my article in a forthcoming symposium issue of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. The article details the political, cultural, social, and legal battles over gun control from the 1920s to the early 21st century. Here’s the abstract: A movement to ban handguns began in the 1920s in the Northeast, led […]
New textbook: Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights and Policy
By David Kopel on May 15, 2012 4:32 pm in Casebooks, Guns, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Militia, Non-Firearms Arms, Registration, Right to carry
The first law school textbook on the Second Amendment is now available from Aspen Publishers. The co-author are Nick Johnson (Fordham), Michael O’Shea (Oklahoma City), George Mocsary (Connecticut), and me. Here’s the publisher’s page for the textbook, from which professors can request a free review copy. The book is also available for civilian purchase from […]
Canada abolishes long gun registry
Yesterday the Canadian Senate voted 50-27 to abolish the long gun registry. Bill C-19 received unanimous support from Conservative Senators, and some support from Liberals. The bill had previously passed the House of Commons. It became the law of the land today, with the Royal Assent of Canada’s Governor-General. The bill does not change Canada’s […]
Heller Loses Round Two
Today the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released a divided opinion in Heller v. D.C. . In this case, Dick Heller (of the Supreme Court’s Heller decision) is challenging the Firearms Registration Amendment Act of 2008 (FRA), a statute adopted by the District of Columbia in response to the Supreme Court’s decision […]
“Nazism, Firearm Registration, and the Night of the Broken Glass”
Reichskristallnacht was 72 years ago. Stephen Halbrook’s 2009 article in the St. Thomas Law Review details the close connection between the disarmament of the German Jews and what came next. From the conclusion: Over a period of several weeks in October and November 1938, the Nazi government disarmed the German Jewish population. The process was carried […]
Puerto Rico law limiting use of shooting ranges
An official with Puerto Rico’s Justice Department has announced that the Department will propose changes in the island’s firearms laws, to bring them into line with Heller and McDonald. However, two of the proposed changes appear to be unconstitutional: Torres said the measures will include a requirement that shooting ranges keep logs of how much ammunition […]
The OAS Firearms Convention Is Incompatible with American Liberties
By David Kopel on May 19, 2010 12:47 pm in Freedom of Speech, Guns, International Law, Registration, Regulation
Just published on-line this morning is the above Backgrounder from the Heritage Foundation. My coauthors are Theodore Bromund and Ray Walser, of Heritage. 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 […]
Mayor Bloomberg’s gun show bill
Does much more than just impose background checks small-scale vendors at gun shows. Details here, in this article I wrote for the Saturday Denver Post.
Why United States v. Miller was so badly written
Before District of Columbia v. Heller, the 1939 decision United States v. Miller was the Supreme Court’s leading decision on the Second Amendment. Miller was, to put it mildly, obliquely written. As Michael O’Shea has detailed, the opinion seems mainly concerned with whether the gun in question was a militia-type weapon, which would suggest that […]
The Right to Arms in the Living Constitution
By David Kopel on December 19, 2009 1:55 pm in Congress, Constitutional History, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, Popular Culture, Registration, Supreme Court
That’s the topic of my new article, for a forthcoming issue of Cardozo Law Review de Novo (the on-line supplement to Cardozo’s printed journal). The article will be part of a symposium issue on McDonald v. Chicago. Here’s the abstract for my Cardozo article: This Article presents a brief history of the Second Amendment as […]
The most important right to arms vote of 2009
UPDATE: The repeal just passed 2d reading by a vote of 164 to 137! The bill now proceeds to a committee for public hearings. The Canadian Conservative Party has 143 Members of Parliament, so the bill attracted over 20 votes from members of other parties–significantly more than had been expected by Canadian political commentators. Today […]