Gun Rights Policy Conference, Oct. 1, 2022. Interview by Firearms Policy Coalition. 21 minutes.

Colorado Inside Out. Mar. 10, 2023. Gun ban bills in legislature. Race for chair of Colo. Republican Party. Denver mayoral race. Environmental extremists want to ban rail shipment of oil from Utah. Best thing: honoring the late J.D. MacFarlane, Colorado's most important Attorney General. Worst: Southern Poverty Law Center used to be anti-terrorist, now it aids an Antifi terrorist attack.

Latest

Written testimony on SB23-168, to eliminate firearms businesses via abusive lawsuits. Mar. 22, 2022. Explains what types of suits are and are not allowed. Describes how the bill could easily to adopted by other states to target abortion businesses in Colorado.

The History of Bans on Types of Arms Before 1900. Including handguns, Bowie knives, daggers, slungshots, brass knuckles, cannons and more. 165 pages. With Joseph G.S. Greenlee.

Suing gun businesses that obey all the laws. George Brauchler Show. KNUS 710 AM. Mar. 9, 2023. Guest host Jon Caldara.

Protecting Law-abiding Firearms Businesses from Abusive Lawsuits. Independence Institute Issue Paper No. 1-2023. Examines bills in Colorado and elsewhere to eliminate firearms stores and manufacturers by junk lawsuits.

Written testimony on HB23-1219, to delay the acquisition of firearms. Colo. House of Reps., State Affairs Committee. Mar. 6, 2023.

Gun control bills in Colorado legislature. George Brauchler Show. KNUS 710 AM. Mar. 1, 2023.

Short articles

How powerful are AR rifles? About the same as other rifles. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Feb. 27, 2023. With Greg Wallace.

The Sources Cited by the Supreme Court in Bruen: Guidance for judicial examination of legal history. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Feb. 13, 2023.

'Assault weapon' still a bogeyman for Colorado pols. Denver Gazette. Jan. 9, 2023.

The legal history of bans on firearms and Bowie knives before 1900. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Nov. 20, 2022.

Bowie knife statutes 1837-1899. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Nov. 20, 2022.

Preliminary injunction against New York bans on licensed carry. Gun Owners of America prevail in Antonyuk v. Hochul. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Nov. 7, 2022.

The Theoretical Lethality Index is useful for military history but not for gun control policy. Professors Miller and Tucker miss the mark, while Saul Cornell disdains accuracy. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Nov. 1, 2022.

Tiananmen Square: An enduring symbol of the Chinese Communist Party's illegitimacy. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Oct. 18, 2022.

The paranoid style in gun control politics. Bloomberg's "The Trace" fabricates a conspiracy about amicus brief writers who adhere to Supreme Court Rules. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Oct. 17, 2022.

In the Media

Washington State Assault Weapons Bill Would Ban All AR-15 and AK-47 Rifles. Time. Mar. 9, 2023. Sanya Mansoor.

Gun bills likely to face legal challenges if passed by. KDVR-TV Denver, Fox 31. Mar. 9, 2023. Gabrielle Franklin.

Red flag law expansion in Colorado, gun bills advance. Colorado Politics. Mar. 9, 2023. Marianne Goodland.

The CDC Killed a Gun Study. America's 1st Freedom. Feb. 24, 2023. Mark Chesnut

GOP congressman seeks alternate legislation to Equal Rights Amendment. Colorado Politics. Feb 4, 2023. Rachel Wright (discussing Kopel's 1993 on certain gun bills)..

To vilify our founders, Hulu’s '1619' ignores what actually sparked the American Revolution. N.Y. Post. Feb. 1, 2023. James Bovard.

Park Hill Golf Course’s fate will be decided by the voters. Denverite. Jan. 24, 2023/ Kyle Harris.

Alito and Thomas encourage opponents of gun control laws to keep pressure on the courts. CNN. Jan. 11, 2023. Ariane de Vogue.

Television, Radio, Podcasts 

Colorado Inside Out. Mar. 10, 2023. Gun ban bills in legislature. Race for chair of Colo. Republican Party. Denver mayoral race. Environmental extremists want to ban rail shipment of oil from Utah. Best thing: honoring the late J.D. MacFarlane, Colorado's most important Attorney General. Worst: Southern Poverty Law Center used to be anti-terrorist, now it aids an Antifi terrorist attack.

Suing gun businesses that obey all the laws. George Brauchler Show. KNUS 710 AM. Mar. 9, 2023. Guest host Jon Caldara.

Gun control bills in Colorado legislature. George Brauchler Show. KNUS 710 AM. Mar. 1, 2023.

Colorado Inside Out. Jan. 27, 2023. Energy prices rise because of subsidies to the inefficient corporate welfare kings of the wind lobby. Impending legislative ban on common firearms is plainly unconstitutional, but the anti-civil rights majority in the state legislature doesn't care. Denver should save the Park Hill Golf Course for parkland, not development. State legislative plans for rent control will reduce supply and, in the long run, raise prices for renters. Worst thing: Colo. AG Phil Weiser files extremist amicus brief against houses of worship being able to protect themselves with armed guards. Best thing: Colorado skier Mikaela Shiffrin closes in on both-sexes record for World Cup wins.

Colorado Inside Out. Jan. 6, 2023. New anti-gun bills are unconstitutional, but Colo. legislature Dems don't care. Polis busses immigrants to other cities. Dems in Colo. legislature will try to destroy the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Republican fight over U.S. House Speaker might lead to reforms of legislative process; disgraceful House Dems vote for serial election denier Hakeem Jeffries. Worst thing: Antiscience fundamentalists ban plastic bags. Best thing: The world's two most famous teenagers, both born Jan. 3, 2023, turn 20; are wedding bells in their future?

Gun Rights Policy Conference, Oct. 1, 2022. Interview by Firearms Policy Coalition. 21 minutes.

Cato Institute. 21st Annual Constitution Day. The Supreme Court: Past and Prologue A Look at the 2021 and 2022 Term. Panel III, Guns, Drugs, and Abortion. Sept. 16, 2022. Kopel starts at 4:30:04. Kopel only, for C-Span Bell Ringers (program to teach social studies). Clip 1 (Introduction), Clip 2 (The 2nd Amendment Before the Case), Clip 3 (The Case), Clip 4 (Permissible Controls and the Opinion).

Dave Kopel on Guns and Tyranny. Self in Society, with Ari Armstrong. June 15, 2022. 65 mins.

ConcealedCarry dot com. June 1, 2022. Season 6 episode 12. How Often Do Armed Citizens Defend Themselves? And lots of other arms policy discussion. 74 minutes.

Independence Institute TV. May 25, 2022. About 7% of Colorado's Constitution is being ignored by Colorado courts. Dave discusses his new book Colorado Constitutional Law and History (Vandeplas Publishing, 2d ed. 2022).

What Do the Bible and Christian Tradition Say About Self Defence, Gun Rights, and Liberty? More Christ. 91 minutes. Discussion of Kopel's book The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition. (Praeger, 2017).

Latest Monographs & Journal articles

Restoring the right to bear arms: New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. In 2021-22 Cato Supreme Court Review (Trevor Burrus ed., Sept. 16, 2022).

Guns Kill People, and Tyrants with Gun Monopolies Kill the Most. 25 Gonzaga Journal of International Law 20 (2021).

Errors of Omission: Words Missing from the Ninth Circuit's Young v. State of Hawaii, 2021 University of Illinois Law Review Online 172 (May 13, 2021). With George A. Mocsary.

Red Flag Laws: Proceed with Caution. 45 (Alabama) Law & Psychology Review 39 (2021).

In the Courts and Congress

U.S. v. Jackson, No. CR22-37RSL, 2023 WL 1967199, *4 n.2 (W.D. Wash. Feb. 13, 2023). Citing The “Sensitive Places” Doctrine: Locational Limits on the Right to Bear Arms, 13 Charleston Law Review 205 (2018). Ban on firearms possession by convicted felons is constitutional.

U.S. v. Harrison, No. CR-22-00328-PRW, slip op. p. 53 n.176 (W.D. Okla. Feb. 3, 2023). Citing Restoring the right to bear arms: New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, 2021-22 Cato Supreme Court Review at 325-26 (Trevor Burrus ed., 2022). Ban on firearms possession by marijuana users is unconstitutional.

U.S. v. Rahimi, No. 21-11001 (5th Cir. Feb. 2, 2023). Citing The Federal Circuits' Second Amendment Doctrines, 61 St. Louis University Law Journal 193, 244 (2017). Federal ban on gun possession based on civil restraiing orders, rather than criminal process, is unconstitutional.

U.S. v. Barber, No. 4:20-CR-384-SDJ, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14340 *27-28, 2023 WL 1073667 (E.D. Tex. Jan. 27, 2023). Citing Johnson, Kopel, et al. Firearms Law and the Second Amendment textbook. Arms possession ban for convicted violent felons is not unconstitution

Gonzales v. Google. No. 21-1333. Suprme Court merits amicus brief of Center for Growth and Opportunity, Independence Institute, and other think tanks. The text of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not authorize legal liability for the content of targeted content selected by an algorithm.

Wade v. University of Michigan, no. SC 156150 (Mich., Nov. 10, 2022). Michigan Supreme Court unanimously reverses court of appeals decision upholding University of Michigan gun ban, and remands the case for further consideration. Concurring, Justice Viviano cites The “Sensitive Places” Doctrine: Locational Limits on the Right to Bear Arms. 13 Charleston Law Review 205 (2018).

Hardaway v. Nigrelli, 2022 WL 16646220 (W.D.N.Y. Nov. 3, 2022) (PI); 2022 WL 16646220 22-CV-771 (TRO). Preliminary injunction against N.Y. statute banning firearms in houses of worship, even for church or synagogue staff. Citing The “Sensitive Places” Doctrine: Locational Limits on the Right to Bear Arms. 13 Charleston Law Review 205 (2018).

United States v. Coombs, 2022 WL 4367056, No. 22-CR-00189-GKF (D. Okla., Sept. 21, 2022). Citing The First Amendment Guide to the Second Amendment, 81 Tennessee Law Review 417 (2014).

Frein v. Pennsylvania State Police, --- F.4th ----, No.21-1830 (3d Cir. Aug. 30, 2022). Citing The Second Amendment in the Nineteenth Century, 1998 BYU L. Rev. 1359, 1445–48 (1998). Police seized guns owned by a criminal's parents. The parents and their guns were not involved in the crime. Eight years later, the guns must be returned.

Maryland Shall Issue v. Hogan. No. 21-2017. Fourth Circuit amicus brief. Legal history before 1900 provides no support for licensing or training mandates for keeping an arm at home. Aug. 10, 2022.

Jones v. Bonta, 34 F.4th 704, 717 n.8, 10-13 (9th Cir. 2022). California ban on young adult purchases of semiautomatic centerfire rifles violates the Second Amendment. Majority cites Kopel's The Second Amendment Rights of Young Adults. 43 Southern Illinois University Law Journal 495 (2019); and The Posse Comitatus and the Office of Sheriff: Armed Citizens Summoned to the Aid of Law Enforcement. 104 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 671 (2015).

Duncan v. Bonta. No. 21-1194. U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in support of cert. petition. Lower federal courts have refused to apply the Supreme Court's "common use" test for protected arms, and have invented substitute tests to uphold arms bans. Mar. 31, 2022. Result: On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme granted the cert. petition, vacated the decision below, and remanded for further consideration in light of Bruen.

Bianchi v. Frosh. No. 21-902. Cert. petition amicus brief for Professors of Second Amendment Law, Cato Institute, John Locke Foundation, Center to Keep and Bear Arms, and Independence Institute. Maryland's ban on semiautomatic rifles violates the Second Amendment, and lower court cases upholding rifle bans are illogical. Feb. 11, 2022. Result: On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme granted the cert. petition, vacated the decision below, and remanded for further consideration in light of Bruen.

Duncan v. Bonta, 19 F.4th 1087, 1130, 1154, 1162 n.3 (9th Cir., 2021) (en banc). Majority cites The History of Firearms Magazines and of Magazine Prohibition. 78 Albany Law Review 849 (2015). Dissent by Judge Bumatay (joined by Judges Ikuta and Nelson) also cites that article. Judge Van Dyke's dissent cited The Federal Circuits' Second Amendment Doctrines. 61 St. Louis University Law Journal 193 (2017). Result: On June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme granted the cert. petition, vacated the decision below, and remanded for further consideration in light of Bruen.