David B. Kopel

Latest by David B. Kopel in Chronicles

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  October 2003

  Who Needs Guns?

  Australia has something under 20 million people living on a continent as large as the continental United States. It is known as a place where an overseas visitor might, in some regions at least, find a frontier atmosphere.

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• Vital Signs

  July 2003

  Targeting Liberties

  Imagine Time had not named FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley a “person of the year” but gave the award to the FBI bureaucrats who obstructed Crowley’s investigation of Arab terrorists.

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• Vital Signs

  February 2002

  Speak No Evil

  On January 11, 2001, 40-year-old Terence Hunter was arrested by the New York Police Department for writing a letter to Staten Island borough president Guy Molinari, criticizing him for closing a community center in a black neighborhood.

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• Vital Signs

  December 2001

  Gianni, Get Your Gun

  One of the most important reasons for the sweeping victory of Silvio Berlusconi and his House of Liberty in the recent Italian election was concern for public safety, which ranks as the number-one issue on the minds of voters, according to some polls.

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• Vital Signs

  November 2000

  Our Presidents in Song

  Bill Clinton and George Bush, Sr., share something: They are the only presidents since George Washington who were elected without having a campaign song written for them.

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• Vital Signs

  September 2000

  Gore's Double Standard on Firearms

  Speaking in Atlanta this May, Al Gore joined the National Rifle Association and numerous police unions in supporting federal legislation to override state laws regulating the concealed carrying of handguns.

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• Cultural Revolutions

  August 2000

  Refusing to Do Something New

  The Supreme Court attracts the most attention when it does something new, or does something so old that it seems new.

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• Reviews

  July 2000

  A Collaborative Effort

  Before the War Between the States, the Battle of New Orleans was celebrated nearly on a par with Independence Day, each anniversary commemorating the triumph of American liberty over the British monarchy.

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• Reviews

  February 2000

  Terms of Revilement

  Making a Killing, which may be the most influential anti-gun book ever written, could not have been better timed to the current wave of lawsuits against gun companies, since many of the legal claims closely resemble the charges that Tom Diaz makes against the gun industry.

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• Vital Signs

  February 2000

  The Founders' Reading of Ancient History

  Why is the Second Amendment under such constant attack? One important reason is the depressing historical ignorance of most Americans, particularly of classical history.

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• Reviews

  December 1999

  Damn Lies—or Statistics

  The most important book ever published about firearms policy is John Lott's superb "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws". No other firearms book has reshaped the political debate so profoundly or its author been subjected to such a determined campaign of lies and libels.

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• Vital Signs

  July 1999

  Arms and Thomas Jefferson

  The greatest enemy of government power in the early American republic was Thomas Jefferson. It is no wonder, then, that Jefferson has been so aggressively vilified by the partisans of political correctness.

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  June 1999

  Welcome to Dodge City

  On the American frontier of previous centuries, the possession of a firearm was often a key to survival. In this regard, the frontier of 20th-century America, although different geographically, is very much like earlier frontiers.

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• Vital Signs

  April 1999

  Disarming the Victims

  More guns, more murder? This central tenet of the anti-gun movement has found strong new support from the movement's intellectual superstar. University of California law professor Franklin Zimring.

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• Vital Signs

  February 1999

  Remember Pearl Harbor

  Under the auspices of the United Nations, no nation is working harder to disarm American citizens than is Japan. With help from Canada and Colombia, Japan is the main engine pushing the United Nations to promote "small arms" controls which would obliterate the Second Amendment.

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• Vital Signs

  November 1998

  Gun Sense and Sensibility

  When Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated 30 years ago with a cheap imported handgun, I was among the many Americans who believed that America's "gun culture" was out of control.

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• Vital Signs

  January 1998

  Burglary and the Armed Homestead

  Guns in the right hands make all good people safer—including people who don't own guns. The higher the number of responsible people who have guns ready to be used for selfdefense, the safer the public is.

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• Vital Signs

  April 1996

  Does God Believe in Gun Control?

  "You are doing God's work," Brady Bill sponsor Charles Schumer remarked to Sarah Brady at a congressional hearing. And perhaps one could argue that if it took God seven days to make the world, people should not be able to buy a handgun in any less time.

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  December 1995

  Child Abuse at Waco

  "For the sake of the children" has emerged as one of the most dangerous phrases in American politics.

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