Constitutional trouble for Colorado’s National Popular Vote scheme
Two new SCOTUS decisions make it clear NPV violates the Colorado Constitution.
VIDEO: David Harsanyi First Freedom Event
David Harsanyi, author of the book, “First Freedom: A Ride Through America’s Enduring History with the Gun” sat down with Second Amendment scholar David Kopel to discuss guns and gun rights in America. Below is the video.
Dave Kopel on Gun Talk with Tom Gresham
Second Amendment scholar Dave Kopel joins Tom Gresham on his show “Gun Talk” on August 19, 2018. They talk about the Independence Institute, our annual Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Party, and the proper way to talk about gun rights to folks who are on the fence.
Tom Gresham | Keynote Address | ATF Party 2018
Watch Tom Gresham’s keynote address at this year’s ATF Party.
In the wake of a gun ban, Venezuela sees rising homicide rate
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.” […]
Gun ban for young adults would be wholly unconstitutional
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.
What if there were serious gun controls?
After the Las Vegas murders, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) urged Congress to “take a stand against gun violence by passing common-sense gun safety laws.” On Monday, after the mass murder in Texas, he wrote, “A simple idea: Anyone convicted of domestic abuse should see their rights under the 2nd Amendment severely curtailed.” On Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced that he and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) are writing a bill “to prevent anyone convicted of domestic violence — be it in criminal or military court — from buying a gun.
The racist origin of gun control laws
by Dave Kopel and Joseph Greenlee Guns have historically protected Americans from white supremacists, just as gun control has historically protected white supremacists from the Americans they terrorize. One month after the Confederate surrender in 1865, Frederick Douglass urged federal action to stop state and local infringement of the right to arms. Until this was […]
Want to stop mass shootings? Let’s get more guns in the right hands
The recent mass murders on London Bridge ended eight minutes after they began, when armed English police officers arrived and shot the killers. Other police officers, who had batons but not firearms, happened to be near the scene when the attack began.
2017 is shaping up to be another winning year for gun owners
So far this year, thirteen state legislatures have enacted laws to strengthen the right to keep and bear arms, and none have passed new gun control laws. In every year this century, pro-gun laws have outnumbered anti-gun laws, but this year’s score is particularly lopsided.
Dave Kopel Testimony on Senate Bill 17-006 “Lizzie’s Law”
On Monday February 13, 2017, Dave Kopel testified on Senate Bill 17-006, also known as Lizzie’s Law. Here is the audio recording of his testimony.
Judge Gorsuch and the Independence Institute
The Independence Institute has specific reason to celebrate the nomination of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. In 2011, a group of anti-TABOR plaintiffs sued in Denver federal court, arguing that TABOR violated the U.S. Constitution because it was inconsistent with the Constitution’s guarantee that every state have a “republican form of government.” (Kerr v. […]
