Dave Kopel's 2nd Amendment Newsletter

Table of Contents for this issue

1. New by Kopel: Law Review article on concealed carry, Hillary's future Presidency, law review article on the Torah, Election, Pre-Emption, and Ambrose E. Burnside. Plus lots of blotting.

2. International: Canadian homicides, Mexican Pistolero Priest, Kiwi Self-defense, Russian civilians arm in response to Terror, Brit! ain's government supports Anti-Gun Activists and Wants to ban Knives, de facto total ban in South Africa.

3. Culture: No Sporting Shotguns in High School Yearbook, Long John Silver's fires manager who drove off armed robbers, Hunters' Mental Health, and Dan Rather.

4. Terrorism: Effort underweigh to overcome Mineta's Resistance to Armed Pilots

5. States: Oklahoma resists Anti-2nd Amendment Lawsuits.

6. Reference: Owners' Manuals On-line!

---

1. New by Kopel

A. Law Review Articles

"The Licensing of Concealed Handguns for Lawful Protection: Support from Five State Supreme Courts."

View Information

This is an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of Dave's forthcoming Albany Law Review article of recent decisions in New Mexico, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island.

The Torah and Self-Defense
109 Penn State Law Review 17 (2004)

View Information

There is sanction in the oldest sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity for personal protection.

B. Other Articles

How Hillary Clinton Won the Presidential Elections of 2008 and 2012: A Retrospective From The Year 2150.
November 9, 2004

View Information

Dave treats the possible revival of the Democratic party in tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Arms Alive: The Second Amendment triumphed on Election Day National Review Online
November 3, 2004

View Information

Election results

Voting On Target
National Review Online
November 2, 2004

View Information

Key races analyzed

Who's Getting Your Vote? Reason's revealing presidential poll
Reason Magazine
November, 2004

View Information

Reason magazine asked some its writers and friends for whom they were voting; Dave explains hisvote for Bush.

Ambrose E. Burnside: General, Governor, Senator, Civil Rights Activist and First President of the NRA America's 1st Freedom
October, 2004

View Information

This is Dave's article, in Adobe Acrobat form, about the Union general who went on to become the founder and 1st president of the ! National Rifle Association.

The Torch of Freedom. Roosevelt lit the path Kerry's afraid to follow After Pearl Harbor, the United States responded by invading neutral French North Africa.
The National Review Online
October 7, 2004

View Information

'Pre-emption' in national self-defense has a respectable pedigree in the Democrat party.

Bait-'n'-Switch. Gun-prohibition lobbyists are after much more than AK-47s.
The National Review Online
September 13, 2004

View Information

C. Dave's Weblog Entries

Illinois Limits Gun Ban Enforcement:
November 12, 2004
The Volokh Conspiracy

View Information

A new law in Illinois prevents the conviction of a person for violating the handgun ban, if the person used the handgun for lawful self- defense on his property.

Gun Case in the Supreme Court: Sporting Clays Case in Virginia
The Volokh Conspiracy
November 4, 2004

View Information

Does the federal ban on gun possession by convicted felons apply to convictions from Japan? Does Virginia's right to hunt protect the right to operate a sporting clays facility?

Michael Moore and Osama bin Laden:
The Volokh Conspiracy
N! ov. 1, 2004

View Information

Osama is Michael Moore's most famous fan...

Federalists "sniped" at Western New England College School of Law
The Volokh Conspiracy
Nov. 1, 2004

View Information

Dave's speech at Western New England College School of Law, in Springfield, Massachusetts provoked an Administration-sponsored 'counter event.'

Debunking Moore
National Review Online: The Corner
October 23, 2004

View Information

Dave's efforts to illuminate Moore's distortions are beginning to attract substantial notice.

For Your Viewing
National Review Online: The Corner
October 16, 2004

View Information

A new 14-minute film, now available for web viewing, uses Michael Moore's film-making techniques to examine J.R.R. Tolkien's War of the Ring.

AK-47
National Review Online: The Corner

View Information

October 16, 2004

The authentic AK-47 (an automatic rifle) is not and never has been illegal; but it is very severely regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934, which covers automatic firearms.

D. New Movie.

Farenhype 9/11.
Rebuts Michael Moore's lies, and features extensive interviews with Kopel and with David Hardy. Hundreds of thousands of copies already sold!

View Information

E. Coming in early December, on Kopel's website

Draft law review article on Microdisarmament in six nations (Bougainville, Cambodia, Albania, Guatemala, Panama, and Mali). Explains how gun prohibition violates human rights, including the right to keep and bear arms which is implicit in the Universal Dec! laration of Human Rights.

---

2. International

Canada

Firearm Homicides, By Type Of Firearm And Registration Status, 1997- 2003 Statistics Canada

View Information

In 2003, 71% of the 548 victims were murdered using something other than a firearm. This web page is a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel Format.

New Zealand

Bill Seeks To Restore Right Of Self-Defence
Danya Levy
New Zealand Press Association
November 1, 2004

(The article is difficult to obtain online, Dave here excerpts itl)

Wellington, Nov 1 - People in rural areas should have the right to defend themselves and their property and the law needs to be changed so they don't feel helpless in their homes, MP Stephen Franks said today.

ACT Party's justice spokesman today launched his draft of the Crimes (Self-Defence) Amendment Bill which seeks to restore the defence of prov! ocation, removed in the 1980 Crimes Act.

The issue has come to the fore following the recent home invasion and assault of Rotorua businessman Peter Bentley and the trial of Northland farmer Paul McIntyre who shot a burglar two years ago.

Russia

Firearm fever in Russia
Pravda
9/16/2004

View Information

After the recent terrorist act in Beslan, Russians began purchasing legal means of self-defense. The article notes that many Russians are not resigned todefenselessness in the presence of Al-Quaida and other such killers.

South Africa

No Legal Guns Sold Since July
News24.com (Johannesburg)
September 27, 2004
By Lizel Steenkamp

View Information

Efforts to comply with the newest firearms laws in South Africa seem to be futile for anyone wishing to retain their firearms or the use of them. Witness the following account from a South African:

"I sit here tonight like Job on the smoking ruins of a life spent to protect the right of the law-abiding to keep and bear arms. In three months an anti-gun Marxist government has destroyed my ability to pay my house, drive a car, pay for medical aid and send my children to school.

"South Africa is the home of hunting and the crime capital of the world. To handle either the law-abiding citizen loyal to the law of the land needs firearms. Under the pretence of permitting but regulating same our government has destroyed our right to practice our spo! rt of choice, earn an honourable living or defend ourselves.

"You can apply for renewal of your gun licences: If you have a competency certificate. To get a competency certificate you have to pass a wriiten test on law, safety, firearm handling, safekeeping, transportation, firearm maintenance, etc. at an accredited instructor. Right now there are now more than a handful of intructors that have been accredited in a country covering 471,445 square miles. Let us say there are 20 accredited instructors. That means that there is one instructor per 23,572 square miles in this country, or one accredited instructor per 140,000 members of the popualtion. If you want a new gun licence you need to pass not only the written test, but a practical shooting test on an accredited range as well. We do not have 30 accredited ranges in this country due to administrative backlogs. All the range! s that have functioned without incident for decades are now illegal unless re-inspected, and approved at great cost.

"Once you have passed your proficiency tests at an accreditred instructor (which I have to redo despite having been a former Captain in the old SA Army with 20 years combat experience, 30 years of incident free hunting, being the widest published gunwriter in Africa, a former lawyer specializing in firearms law, a reloader of 42 cartridges, executive official of every major gun/hunting association in Africa, a military instructor in infantry platoon weapons, and armoured cars, a former advanced tactical instructor in rifle, handgun, shotgun and assault rifle and having passed the professional hunter exams) he has to send your papers to the Standards of Education Authority (SETA). The SETA can then take up to 10 weeks to issue your certificate. Once SETA recognises your ability you can then apply to the Police for a Competency Certificate. The Police may or may not issue your certificate in 9-12 months. Once you have the competency certificate you can then aply for either renewal of your existing licences (which we do not know how long it will take as it has not been done), or for a new licence which takes up to 12 months.

"If you have a pistol, shotgun and two rifles, you will regardless of your competency not be issued with more firearm licences unless you are (1) a member of an accredited hunting, collecting or sport shooting body, (2) supply a letter of support from the body, and (3) can convince the police of your need for that firearm, (4) the police has interviewed your family and neighbours (!) none of whom opposed your application (5) you have the necessary safekeeping facilities more or less equal to bank card machine security.

"If your licence application is refused you can appeal. Problem is the so-called appeal board is not functional and there is a backlog of tens of thousands of appeals still to be heard.

"Frankly it is a mess created by deliberate bureaucratic malfunction. In due course I predict that application costs will be raised to prevent even the diehards that conform to the virtual impossible from firearm ownership. In the mean time few of the guns used by the ANC forces during the struggle have been recovered. Suddenly the current government does not remember to whom it had given guns during struggle days.

"From the more than 700 gunshops in this country and 15,000 guns retailed per month we have dropped to zero. I expected a setback. I expected a 50% loss in income. I never expected total commercial melt-down. I lost everything to doctors 11 years ago when my son was born with brain damage and spent months in intensive care. I am losing everything again - even the ability to keep my wife on her medication. They look at me and I have no answer. I am ashamed at having failed them without having done anything wrong.

"Where do I go from here? What do I do for my family? My skills are in gunwriting, publishing, expo's, ballistics and lobbying. None of which are needed here any longer."

United Kingdom

British Home Secretary Admits To Using Taxpayers' Money To Fund Anti-Gun Lobby Group House of Commons Hansard Debates for 18 Oct 2004

View Information

"We have also given £10,000 to Mothers Against Guns" The remark in the official debate transcript here appears about 3 pages down. The advocacy group to which the Home Secretary is funneling taxpayer money has a web page at:

View Information

Vulnerable Pensioners Need The Self-Defence Law Changed
By Karyn Miller and Julian Gavaghan
The Telegraph
November 11,2004

View Information

Two women in their eighties have been brutally beaten in their own homes by burglars in the past few days. This article argues that the attacks are two more! reasons as to why vulnerable householders must have the right (what about the means?) to defend themselves against violent intruders.

WARNING: The article's photographs of the victims are quite graphic.

Playing With Guns Is 'Good For Boys'
By Murdo Macleod and Scott McCulloch
The Scotsman
November 6, 2004

View Information

Banning boys from playing with toy guns is futile and may even damage their development, a leading child psychologist has warned.

Where I Come From, Our Homes Are Still Our Castles
By Joyce Lee Malcolm
The Sunday Telegraph
October 31, 2004

View Information

An American editorialist reminds the population of Britain and Scotland that in some places people still have the right and means to resist intruders into their homes.

Blunkett Backs Call For 'Right To Fight Back' Against Burglars
By Patrick Hennessy
News.telegraph
October 31, 2004

View Information

David Blunkett, Britain's Home Secretary, has given his backing to The Sunday Telegraph's campaign to change the law to give homeowners more rights to protect themselves against burglars. This is the same fellow funneling money to an anti-gun group.

New laws aim to ban shops from selling knives
By Brian Currie
Evening Times Online (Scotland)
November 8, 2004

View Information

New laws banning high street shops from selling ! assault knives, machetes and other weapons could be introduced by the end of next year. Sales of replica guns will also be banned because they can be converted into useable firearms. First Minister Jack McConnell has been in talks with chief constables on how to combat the rising level of knife crime, which is at its highest level for 10 years.

---

3. Culture

N.H. School Board Bans Photo Of Pupil Posing With A Shotgun From Senior Yearbook
The Daily Ardmoreite
October 14, 2004

View Information

This article displays the picture a New Hampshire school board will not allow a student to use in his Senior Yearbook.

Teen Worker Defends Her Fired Boss
Lubbock Online
Octobe! r 6, 2004

View Information

A manager of a Long John Silver's seafood restaurant lost his job for resisting, successfully, an armed robber who was leading him to the back of the store.

Hunting And Mental Health
By James A. Swan, Ph.D.
ESPN Outdoors
November, 2004

View Information

This article on ESPNOutdoors.com responds to insinuations that hunters are prone to mental illness.

Busting Some Caps In Lower Manhattan
By Sarah Portlock
Washington Square News
November 9, 2004

View Information

"Facing another four years of Bush, I realized it was high time to see what the Second Amendment crowd is so frothed up about. I decided to go shooting..."

This isn't Dan Rather's first time in hot water
By Ron Schara
ESPN Outdoors
November, 2004

View Information

"Dan Rather's recent fall from journalistic grace happened -- for some of us -- a long time ago. The evening of Sept. 5, 1975, to be exact. On that day, a much younger and very dashing Dan Rather was the host of a CBS special entitled "Guns of Autumn... I realized Dan Rather had lent his journalistic credibility to a hatchet job on America's hunters."

---

4. Terrorism

Bill To Stop Tsa Obstruction Of Armed Pilots
Press Release
Gun Owners of America
October 6, 2004

View Information

The Goode-Paul amendment in the House of Representatives hope to counter Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta's purposeful foot- dragging on arming U.S. airline pilots who desire to resist attacks upon the cockpit.

---

5. States

Oklahoma Attorney General Responds To Lawsuit Over New Gun Law
Associated Press
The News on 6 (KOTV.com)
November 10, 2004

View Information

The state is preparing to square off in federal court against Whirlpool Corporation and several other Oklahoma businesses which are trying to overturn a new gun law which prohibits corporations for firing employees who have a hunting gun in the trunk of their car in the corporate parking lot.

Text of trial court decision in Denver v. Colorado,ruling that the Colorado legislature may not pre-empt Denver's gun laws.

View Information

Judge Meyerhas an established record as a very political and leftist judicial activist.

---

6. Reference

Owner's Manuals
Stephen Ricciardelli
November 08, 2004

View Information

This thoughtful gentleman has produced an excellent archive of firearms owners' manuals which he has converted to Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, which are required to view or print them. He solicits additional manuals and donations for this praiseworthy-and potentially life-saving-effort.

---

This newsletter is compiled with help from Dr. Rob S. Rice. Dr. Rice, who hopes to be mistaken at restaurants and on the lecture circuit for the nominee for Secretary of State, is also a poet, writer and factotum of matters electronic to Dave Kopel.