David Kopel, Author at Independence Institute

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David Kopel

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Self-Defense in the Jewish Tradition 0
- Guns, Video, Watch&Listen
- January 18, 2019
Second Amendment scholar Dave Kopel gave this speech, Self-Defense in the Jewish Tradition, at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in October 2018.
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In the wake of a gun ban, Venezuela sees rising homicide rate 0
- Guns, The Hill
- April 19, 2018
Since April 2017, at least 163 pro-democracy protesters in Venezuela have been murdered by the Maduro dictatorship. Venezuela serves as an example of how gun prohibition can sometimes encourage gun crime. In 2012, the communist-dominated Venezuelan National Assembly enacted the “Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law.” The bill’s stated objective was to “disarm all citizens.”
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Gun ban for young adults would be wholly unconstitutional 0
- Guns, The Hill
- March 13, 2018
Besides violating the laws of some states and cities, firearms bans for young adults also violate the Constitution. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court reiterated that “[c]onstitutional rights are enshrined with the scope they were understood to have when the people adopted them.” When the Second Amendment was adopted, there were no firearms restrictions on 18-to-20-year-olds, and they were included in every militia across the country.
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Congress should use constitutional power to force states to honor gun rights 0
- Guns, The Hill
- December 31, 2017
A few weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 with bipartisan support. The Act would allow persons eligible to carry a concealed firearm in their home state to carry in other states as well. Opponents contend that the Act violates federalism. Actually, the Act is well within congressional powers under the Fourteenth Amendment. That Amendment was enacted specifically to give Congress the power to act against state infringements of national civil rights.

Section one of the 14th Amendment forbids states to violate civil rights. Section five of the Amendment grants Congress “the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” Enacted during Reconstruction, the Fourteenth Amendment was a remedy to ex-Confederate states denying freedmen the right to arms and other civil rights.
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