David B. Kopel

Bio: David B. Kopel is an academic researcher from Cato Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poison control & Gun control. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 134 publications receiving 572 citations. Previous affiliations of David B. Kopel include University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign & Brigham Young University.

The Samurai, the Mountie and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?

Abstract: Gun control remains one of the hottest topics on America's agenda. Increased violence, gang wars in metropolitan areas, and the prevalence of guns in the United States frequently bring this debate to new crescendos of public concern. How can we find answers that maintain safety while protecting individual liberty? "The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy" offers a compelling look at how other democracies have attempted to solve their own gun problems, and what we can learn from these countries.

Shall Issue: The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws

Abstract: Examines the history and effects on crime rates of adoption of "shall issue" concealed weapon permit laws.

The Human Right of Self-Defense

Abstract: Does a woman have a human right to resist rape or murder? Do people have a human right to resist tyranny? The United Nations Human Rights Council has said no - that international law recognizes no human right of self-defense. To the contrary, the Human Rights Council declares that very severe gun control - more restrictive than even the laws of New York City - is a human right. Surveying international law from its earliest days to the present, this Article demonstrates that self-defense is a widely-recognized human right which no government and no international body have the authority to abrogate. The issue is especially important today, as many international advocates of international gun prohibition are using the United Nations to deny and then eliminate the right of self-defense. For example, the General Assembly is creating an Arms Trade Treaty which would define arms sales to citizens in the United States as a human rights violation, because American law guarantees the right to use lethal force, when no lesser force will suffice, against a non-homicidal violent felony attack. The article analyzes in detail the Founders of international law - the great scholars in the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries who created the system of international law. The Article then looks at the major legal systems which have contributed to international law, such as Greek law, Roman law, Spanish law, Jewish law, Islamic law, Canon law, and Anglo-American law. In addition, the article covers the full scope of contemporary international law sources, including treaties, the United Nations, constitutions from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and much more. The Article shows that international law - particularly its restraints on the conduct of warfare - is founded on the personal right of self-defense.

Pretend 'Gun-Free' School Zones: A Deadly Legal Fiction

Abstract: Most states issue permits to carry a concealed handgun for lawful protection to an applicant who is over 21 years of age, and who passes a fingerprint-based background check and a safety class. These permits allow the person to carry a concealed defensive handgun almost everywhere in the state. Should professors, school teachers, or adult college and graduate students who have such permits be allowed to carry firearms on campus?In the last two years, many state legislatures have debated the topic. School boards, regents, and administrators are likewise faced with decisions about whether to change campus firearms policies.This Paper is the first to provide a thorough analysis of the empirical evidence and policy arguments regarding licensed campus carry. Whether a reader agrees or disagrees with the Paper's policy recommendations, the Paper can lay the foundation for a better-informed debate, and a more realistic analysis of the issue.

This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible

Abstract: This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible Charles E. Cobb Jr. New York: Basic Books, 2014, 293 pp. Charles Cobb's excellent book This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible teaches two important lessons that will make some people uncomfortable. The first lesson is summarized in the subtitle: the exercise of Second Amendment rights was a sine qua non for the survival and success of the Civil Rights Movement in the South during the 1960s. The second uncomfortable lesson, for some people, is that community organizing is vital to democracy. This Nonviolent Stuff is not the first book about armed self-defense in the Civil Rights Movement, but it does make a vital and unique contribution. Nicholas Johnson's Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms (Prometheus, 2014) surveyed the long history of self-defense by black people in America--from Frederick Douglass advising how to resist slave-catchers, to Otis McDonald winning his Supreme Court case in 2010. This survey includes a long chapter about the Civil Rights Movement, and it is the best introduction to the subject. As a law professor, Johnson pays careful attention to the national leaders of the civil rights organizations and their formally expressed views. The other major, prior book on the subject is The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement by Lance Hill (University of North Carolina Press, 2004). This overlooked gem tells the history of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed community defense organization founded in southeastern Louisiana in 1965. Especially in the Louisiana panhandle and in southwestern Mississippi, the Deacons were immensely successful at suppressing Klan violence and promoting the repeal of segregation. The Johnson and Cobb books both include careful analysis of the Deacons, but of course not in the detail provided by Hill. What makes This Nonviolent Stuff so powerful is that it provides the perspective of the community organizers themselves and explains why they overcame their aversion to forceful self-defense. In contrast to conventional histories of the Civil Rights Movement, which concentrate on famous leaders, This Non violent Stuff is history from the ground up. Cobb was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, working in the rural Deep South. In conformity with SNCC's name, Cobb began his organizing work strongly committed to nonviolence. Even more deeply invested in nonviolence was another community organizing group, the Congress of Racial Equality. CORE had roots in the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the world's leading ecumenical organization of Christian pacifists. So how did these people end up with guns? To begin with, they went to places which already had lots of guns. The rural South has a very strong gun culture. "Gun control," such as restrictive licensing laws, originated in ex-Confederate states when white supremacists attempted to prevent freedmen from defending themselves. Nevertheless, by the middle of the 20th century, black fanners and residents of small towns had a healthy supply of firearms. Many black men had become proficient shooters during their service in World War II or Korea. They had an established tradition of self-defense--of using their anus to deter and drive off whites who might come to their homes and threaten their families. The civil rights community organizers were housed with local families. And the families made it quite clear to their long-term guests that if Klansmen showed up to attack the organizers, there was going to be an armed response. When the organizers traveled, especially at night, there was grave risk of homicide by the Klan, other terrorist groups, or unorganized thugs. So the community tended to insist that tire organizers be provided with armed escort. …

Crime, Deterrence, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handguns

Abstract: Using cross‐sectional time‐series data for U.S. counties from 1977 to 1992, we find that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes, without increasing accidental deaths. If those states without right‐to‐carry concealed gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, county‐ and state‐level data indicate that approximately 1,500 murders would have been avoided yearly. Similarly, we predict that rapes would have declined by over 4,000, robbery by over 11,000, and aggravated assaults by over 60,000. We also find criminals substituting into property crimes involving stealth, where the probability of contact between the criminal and the victim is minimal. Further, higher arrest and conviction rates consistently reduce crime. The estimated annual gain from all remaining states adopting these laws was at least $5.74 billion in 1992. The annual social benefit from an additional concealed handgun permit is as high as $5,000.

United States V. _____

Abstract: FACTS An officer in Midvale, Utah was doing some paperwork in his patrol car when he was approached by man, later identified as Nitokalisi Fonua (hereinafter, “Nick”). Nick “looked suspicious,” mainly because he was “jittery, looking around and appeared to be very nervous.” Nick’s suspicion rating jumped dramatically when, for no apparent reason, he informed the officer he had stolen a white GMC Blazer, which he had parked nearby. Naturally, the officer asked Nick if he would show him the Blazer, and Nick said sure. When they located the Blazer, the officer walked over and looked inside. The first thing he saw was a sawed-off shotgun on the back seat. Then he noticed some markings on the shotgun, “markings that looked gang-related.” Nick told the officer that the key to the Blazer was inside his motel room at the Days Inn. Also in the room, he said, were his “cousins,” meaning “people he knows from the streets.” The officer asked Nick “if we could obtain the keys to the vehicle so we could turn those back over to the owner.” Nick said the keys “were in the room somewhere” and that he “didn’t care” if the officer went in and retrieved them. Nick also gave the officer his key to the room. When backup arrived at the motel, officers knocked on the door which was opened by a man named Vake. There were two other occupants: a woman and Kimoana, the defendant. By this time, the officers were aware that Kimoana—not Nick—had rented the room. The first thing the officers saw as the door opened was the woman pointing “an unidentified black object” at the wall. Concerned for their safety, they ordered the occupants to “show their hands.” Then they pat searched them. Finding no weapons (the “unidentified black object” was a television remote control), they holstered their guns. Although the officers already had Nick’s consent to search the room, they sought and obtained consent from Vake. During the search, they found a “long-barreled revolver” under a mattress. As the result, Kimoana was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Freedom of contract, bargaining power & forum selection in bills of lading

Abstract: The ability of the parties to conclude binding agreements, and to determine the contents of these agreements, is at the very core of our market system. They are the consequence of our liberal understanding of personhood, placing individuality and autonomy as essential elements of our personality. Despite the importance of these concepts, however, the content of freedom of contract has experienced significant changes throughout the years, as more and more limitations are imposed upon it. This new understanding rests on the idea that not all parties are the same, and that there are certain matters that should not be modified by mere agreement. Our work focuses on the relation that freedom of contract (and its limitations) has with forum selection clauses, as well as whether they can be seen as abusive terms. In order to conduct this analysis, we use the case of maritime carriage contracts under bills of lading, reviewing the regulations that affect the trade, and whether changes need to be made to accommodate our new understanding.