History

New: Colorado Constitutional Law and History (2d ed. 2022). Treatise and textbook on Colorado's wonderful Constitution--and on how the courts and other branches have nullified much of it. Buy at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound (to arrange pickup at a local bookstore), or from Vandeplas Publishing. Any of these vendors will sell you the printed book. If you want the ebook, you must buy from Vandeplas and must have an academic email account to install the reader software.

Global

Antecedents of the Second Amendment. Supplemental online chapter 16 to Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy (Wolters Kluwer, 2d ed. 2017). With Nicholas J. Johnson, George Mocsary and Gregory Wallace. Covers ancient China, Greece, Rome, the Judeo-Christian tradition, and European political philosophy.

Ancient History

Greece

Arms and the Greeks. What Plato and Aristotle thought about arms control. Liberty. August 1999.


Ancient Asia

Self-defense in Asian Religions, 2 Liberty Law Review 79 (2007).


Ancient Israel

Self-defense in Jewish Tradition. Univ. of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Oct. 24, 2018. 56 minutes. First minute is cut.

Ancient Hebrew Militia Law. 90 Denver University Law Review Online 175 (2013).

To Your Tents, O Israel! The history of ancient kingdom of Israel, and how the people created a strong central government for national security, but then found that their own liberties were endangered by that government. And the lessons that the American colonists and Founders drew from Israel's experience. Liberty, April 2007.

The Feast of Purim. Feb. 26, 1994.

Audacious Judith. The Jewish heroine. MSNBC.com, Dec. 8, 2004.

Armed Jews Week. The Jews who fought the Nazis embodied the spirit of Hanukkah. MSNBC.com, Dec. 10, 2004.

A Rich Tradition. Jewish war lessons. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2002.

Purim history, 3/14/06.


Roman Republic and Empire

The Founders' Reading of Ancient History. Feb. 2000, Chronicles, pp. 47-48.

Gore as Caligula? At times, Clinton seems like a one-man agglomeration of the vices of the early Roman emperors. National Review Online, May 10, 2000.

Perpetua & Felicity (optional course reading for "Women Writers of the Middle Ages," Medieval Studies 3351/Women's Studies 3001, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997)

St. Blase.

St. Cecelia


Early to Middle Second Millennium

Middle Ages

The Catholic Second Amendment, 29 Hamline Law Review 519 (2006).

God, Man, and Tyrants. John of Salisbury and the Bestselling Book of the Twelfth Century. Liberty. May 2004.

Saint Wenceslaus

Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Saint Hildegund.

The Swiss and Their Guns.  American Rifleman, Feb. 1990. (Entered in full into the Congressional Record by N.H. Rep. Dick Bass.)


Renaissance

Why is this Woman Smiling? Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest painters of all time, also contributed to society something far more valuable than the Mona Lisa--the first self-igniting firearm. America's 1st Freedom, Oct. 2005. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Unity in the Virgin The cultural, historical, and American significance of the Virgin of Guadalupe. MSNBC.com, Dec. 12, 2004.


Sixteenth Century

We all do extol Thee, Thou leader in Battle. The origins of the Thanksgiving hymn "We Gather Together," and the Dutch War of Independence,Nov. 21, 2012.

Luther and the Christian Duty to Defend Innocents, Volokh.com. Nov. 17, 2005.

God's Carpenter. Minorities targeted for ethnic cleansing. Leaders of persecuted religious sects. Escaped slaves. Outlawed guns. Every age has something to hide, and also brave individuals who risk everything to hide it. Nicholas Owen was one of those brave men. Liberty magazine. March 2004.


Seventeenth Century, World

Great Britain

Audio books on British history. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. April 29, 2022.

Algernon Sidney: A father of the Declaration of Independence. Washington Post. July 3, 2016.

Origins of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Rutherford's ‘Lex, Rex.' Washington Post. July 2, 2016.

English legal history and the right to carry arms. Washington Post. Oct. 31, 2015. English law in the 17th and 18th centuries allowed the peaceable carry of arms, and forbade carry in a deliberately terrifying manner.

The Scottish and English Religious Roots of the American Right to Arms: Buchanan, Rutherford, Locke, Sidney, and the Duty to Overthrow Tyranny. 12 Bridges 291 (nos. 3/4, Fall/Winter 2005).

Virtue in Equivocation. Happy Guy Fawkes Day. National Review Online. Nov. 5, 2001.

It isn't about Duck Hunting: The British Origins of the Right to Arms (book review) 96 Michigan Law Review 1333 (1995).

Malcolm in the Middle. Falling victim to bogus critics. National Review Online. Sept. 16, 2002. Has Joyce Malcolm's research on the history of English gun rights been "discredited."

Japan

Japanese Gun Control, 2 Asia-Pacific Law Review 26 (1993).

Japan: Gun Control and People Control. The American Rifleman, Dec. 1988.

Europe

Bodin, Beccaria, and Bastiat. Diverse views on arms and the use of force in society from important philosophers: a French absolutist, the Italian father of criminology, and a French liberal. En italiano.


18th and 19th centuries

United States Founding and Early Republic

Colonial period and the Revolution

A glossary of militia law terms. Understanding the equipment early Americans had to possess. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. April 27, 2022.

The pro-slavery origins of American gun control. Complete Colorado. June 14, 2020.

April 19, 1775. Battles of Lexington and Concord: The American Revolution Begins. Constituting America. Feb. 24, 2020.

The gun guy and illegal militia founder who became President: George Washington. Our first President understood that armed citizens are essential to American freedom. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Feb. 17, 2020.

In US History, the Right to Arms Is Associated With Liberty, Legal Equality; Gun Control Isn’t. Epoch Times. Aug. 21, 2019.

The Kentucky Rifle. Epoch Times. July 4, 2019.

The Second Amendment Rights of Young Adults. 43 Southern Illinois University Law Journal 495 (2019). With Joseph G.S. Greenlee. The arms mandates of early America, including but not limited to militia laws from the earliest colonial days through 1800.

Interview with David Harsanyi, author of "First Freedom: A Ride Through America's Enduring History with the Gun." Independence Institute. Dec. 12, 2018.

The Second Amendment Rights of Young Adults. Southern Illinois University Law Journal (forthcoming 2018). With Joseph Greenlee. Young adults in colonial and early republic militias.

The American Indian foundation of American gun culture. Washington Post. Nov. 21, 2017.

The Religious Roots of the American Revolution and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 17 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy 167 (2005).

The American Revolution against British Gun Control. Administrative and Regulatory Law News (American Bar Association). Vol. 37, no. 4, Summer 2012. Audio: British Gun Control in Colonial America. America's Fabric radio program. 1030 KVOI AM, Tucson, Ariz. Dec. 2017. Charles Heller reads Kopel's article.

How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution. 38 Charleston Law Review 283 (2012).

The Keystone of the Second Amendment: Quakers, the Pennsylvania Constitution, and the Questionable Scholarship of Nathan Kozuskanich. 19 Widener Law Journal 271 (2010). With Clayton Cramer.

Laws about gun ownership in early America. Volokh.com. Dec. 9, 2011.

Why Yankee Doodle called it "macaroni". Volokh.com. Nov. 19, 2011.

The Catechism of the The Revolution. Jonathan Mayhew, the great Congregationalist preacher from Boston who taught America their duty of resisting tyranny. Liberty, November 2006.

The Stamp Act. Volokh.com. March 22, 2010.

America's Fascination with Firearms. The rigors of the country's frontier led to the proliferation of firearms and a deeply ingrained pro-gun culture. The World & I magazine, Oct. 2003.

Guns of Our Freedom: Celebrate Independence Day with a few rounds. National Review Online. July 1, 2000. In italiano.

The new Constitution

The original meaning of the Indian Commerce Clause. Professor Natelson versus Professor Ablavsky. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. Oct. 11, 2022.

Constitutional Chats, from Constituting America. Federalist Paper 37, The Difficulties of Convention, by James Madison. June 9, 2020. Because of the limits of human knowledge and language, and the diversity of human interests, the proposed Constitution could not be expected to be theoretically perfect. One hour video.

Firearms technology and the original meaning of the Second Amendment. Washington Post. April 3, 2017.

The Second Amendment versus anti-Catholicism. Washington Post. Nov. 20, 2015. James Madison expressly rejected anti-Catholic gun control laws; yet modern anti-gun advocates claim that these bigoted laws laws should be imposed on everyone.

Making the Constitution. A five-part series on the Constitutional Convention. National Review Online, Sept. 25-29, 2000. Part I Throwing out the Articles of Confederation. Part II Enter Alexander Hamilton. Part III The battle over representation. Part IV Compromise, slavery, and much debate. Part V Final questions about the new government.

Federalist 46. "The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared," by James Madison. Kopel examines how well Madison's expectations turned out in practice, and Madison's praise for the American "advantage of being armed." Constituting America, June 30, 2010.

George Mason, 4/1/06.

Putting the Federalist Papers in the Classroom--and in the Legislature. KDEN radio commentary. Feb. 19, 1991

Book Reviews: A Nation of Cowards and The Origin of the Second Amendment. Ideas on Liberty. Mar. 2002.

Faith of Our Fathers. Garry Wills translates the Second Amendment into Latin, in order to evade its plain meaning in English. National Review Online. Mar. 16, 2001.

Early Republic

Tench Coxe and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in the Early Republic, 7 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 347 (1999). With Stephen Halbrook.

An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen. No precedent for Obamacare. Volokh.com. April 2, 2010.

Thomas Jefferson Forever. Celebrates the great Founder, and examines his statements about arms in a free society. Chronicles. July 1999. In italiano.

The Marines' Hymn, 4/22/09.


Nineteenth Century, World

The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies? (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992). Named 1992 Book of the Year by the American Society of Criminology Division of International. Review by Nicholas Johnson, Public Interest Law Review. Review by the Foreign Military Studies Office, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.

Gun Control in Great Britain: Saving Lives or Constricting Liberty? (Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago, Office of International Criminal Justice, 1992).

Audio books on European history. 1500s through the present. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. April 30, 2022.

Jane Austen & The First Gen Y: Are the dilemmas of young people in 2000 so different from those of 1813? National Review Online. July 11, 2000.

Saint Catherine Laboure (and the Miraculous Medal),

A Moriori Lesson. A brief history of pacifism. National Review Online. Apr. 11, 2003. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Bin Laden as Napoleon. A comparison. National Review Online, Nov. 19, 2001.

Why People Club Each Other: Some Irish history, and a word of advice to the government. National Review Online. Aug. 31, 2000.

Taiwan's Right to UN Membership. The Volokh Conspiracy. Sept. 12, 2006.


Antebellum Nineteenth Century United States

The Sovereignty of a Free and Radically Independent People: Colorado’s Enduring Constitutional Heritage. Constituting America. June 2019. Soundcloud audio.

The Right to Arms in Nineteenth Century Colorado. 95 Denver University Law Review 329 (2018).

The Second Amendment in the Nineteenth Century. 1998 BYU Law Review 1359. Cited in Peruta v. County of San Diego, 824 F.3d 919, 937 (9th Cir. 2016) (en banc) (Fletcher, J.). State v. DeCiccio, 315 Conn. 79; 105 A.3d 165 (2014). Peruta v. San Diego, 742 F.3d 1144, 1163 (9th Cir. 2014). Moore v. Madigan, 702 F.3d 933, 940, 948 (7th Cir. 2012) (majority opinion of Judge Posner). Oregon v. Christian, 274 P.3d 262, 280 n.15, 249 Or. App. 1, 32 n.15 (Or. Ct. App. 2012) (Edmonds, J., dissenting). Ezell v. City of Chicago, 651 F.3d 684, 702 n. 11 (7th Cir. 2011) (Judge Sykes) (commending Kopel article as showing the proper model of "originalist interpretive method as applied to the Second Amendment."). Silveira v. Lockyer, 328 F.3d 567, 585 n. 92 (9th Cir. 2003) (Opinion by Judge Kleinfeld, joined by Judges Kozinski, O'Scannlain, and T.G. Nelson, dissenting from denial of petition for rehearing en banc). Gamble v. United States, 30 A.3d 161, 161 n.7 (D.C. App. 2011) (Associate Judge Fisher).

1858 time machine episode of Colorado Inside-Out (2009 Heartland Emmy winner).

Battles for liberty

A Collaborative Effort. Book review of: The Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson and America's First Military Victory, by Robert V. Remini. Chronicles magazine, July 2000.

Star Spangled Banner lyrics, then and now. 5/9/06.

Don't Mess with (Armed) Texans. The real lesson of the Alamo. National Review Online. April 8, 2004.

Right to arms

Supreme Court To Decide If Dred Scott Should Apply To All Americans On Guns. Opponents of the right to bear arms want everyone to be treated as badly as the Supreme Court once treated Dred Scott. The Federalist. Nov. 2, 2021.

Dred Scott and the Second Amendment. Kopel's Law and Liberty News, on Independence Institute Television (IITV). The upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case on the right to bear arms involves some of the same fundamental rights that were at issue in 1856 in Dred Scott v. Sanford. Oct. 2021.

Freedom Fighters. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. America's 1st Freedom. Feb. 2016.

Guns in the Dock. Liberty. Feb. 2003. Examines Nunn v. State and Salina v. Blaksley, two important cases involving the Second Amendment, and their implications for today.

Learning from Coltsville. The case for this national-park candidate. National Review Online. Sept. 23, 2002. National Park status for Coltsville, the industrial village created by Samuel Colt. National Review Online. With Michael Brotherton.

Disarming Errors. Book review of Michael Bellesiles' Arming America. National Review, print edition. Oct. 9, 2000. With Clayton Cramer.

Our Second Amendment: The Original Perspective. St. George Tucker, author of the first American constitutional law treatise. The American Guardian. July 1998.

Religion

Religious Fright. The Left is appalled by President Bush's faith. National Review Online. Mar. 18, 2003. Presidents Jackson and Truman show the constructive use of faith in executive decision-making..

Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the American parochial school system.

Campaigns

Our Presidents in Song. Campaign songs from George Washington to the present. Chronicles. Nov. 2000.

The Veep's Underwear. A look at some of the nastiest allegations from American presidential elections. National Review Online. Oct. 1, 2000.

Other

Dread the Dred Scott Reference. Don't toss this case around unless you know what you're talking about. National Review Online. Dec. 14, 2000.

Consulting Webster. A statesman for all times. Daniel Webster's famous "Hulsemann Letter" shows how America should respond to bullying from foreign dictatorships. National Review Online. Jan. 3, 2003. With Mike Brotherton.


War Between the States, Reconstruction

Civil War

Hillary Clinton's best campaign song: The Yellow Rose of Texas. Although the new pro-Hillary song is terrible, her 2008 campaign song "The Yellow Rose of Texas" shows her strengths. More than just a love song, "The Yellow Rose" tells us about our multiracial past and present. Washington Post. Dec. 9, 2014.

The Hero of Gettysburg. Winfield Scott Hancock shot straight. National Review Online. July 2, 2004. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

Ambrose E. Burnside. General, Governor, Senator, Civil Rights Activist and First President of the NRA. America's 1st Freedom. Nov. 2004. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen. (This web version is slightly longer than the text which was printed in the magazine, and is therefore laid out somewhat differently.)

P.C. police take aim at "Maryland, My Maryland," 3/11/02.

Unknown Hero. The world really can pivot on great men. Book review of The Richmond Campaign of 1862: The Peninsula & Seven Days, Edited by Gary W. Gallagher. National Review Online. Feb. 17-19, 2001.

The Battle Cry of Freedom. Volokh.com. July 6, 2010.

More than Summer Fare. Some history about the 3-day Memorial Day weekend we should all remember. National Review Online. May 26, 2000.

Wisconsin Diversifies. The saga of the Mountaineer. National Review Online. Sept. 5, 2002. University of Wisconsin administrators attempt to prohibit the West Virginia "Mountaineer" mascot from carrying his musket at a football game.

Cinco de Mayo: An all-American holiday. Volokh.com. May 7, 2012.

Rights During War. In 1864, the U.S. Army court-martialed an Indiana civilian and sentenced him to death. What does this case teach us about the Second Amendment and the limits of presidential powers? Liberty. April 2004.

Reconstruction Era

Colorado's early self-government and path to statehood. On the periphery of the periphery, Coloradans energetically exercised their inherent rights of sovereignty and self-government. Reason, Volokh Conspiracy. Aug. 1, 2018.

The Racist Origin of Gun Control Laws. The Hill. Aug. 22, 2017. With Joseph Greenlee.

The original meaning of the 14th Amendment regarding interracial marriage. Volokh.com. Dec. 5, 2011.

The Klan's Favorite Law: Gun control in the postwar South. Reason.com, Feb. 15, 2005.

Check the Footnotes. Skip Bellesiles. Read Halbrook. NRO Weekend, January 13-14, 2001. With Clayton Cramer. Book review of Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876, by Stephen P. Halbrook (Praeger, 1998, 248 pp., $57.75).

United States, 1877-1899

New: Colorado Constitutional Law and History (2d ed. 2022). Treatise and textbook on Colorado's wonderful Constitution--and on how the courts and other branches have nullified much of it. Buy at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound (to arrange pickup at a local bookstore), or from Vandeplan Publishing. Any of these vendors will sell you the printed book. If you want the ebook, you must buy from Vandeplas and must have an academic email account to install the reader software.

Journal Articles

History and Tradition in Modern Circuit Cases on the Second Amendment Rights of Young People. 43 Southern Illinois University Law Journal 119 (2018). With Joseph G.S. Greenlee.

Miller versus Texas: Police Violence, Race Relations, Capital Punishment, and Gun-toting in Texas in the Nineteenth Century—and Today. 9 Journal of Law and Policy 737 (2001). With Cynthia Leonardatos and Stephen P. Halbrook.

The Self-Defense Cases: How the Supreme Court Confronted a Hanging Judge in the Nineteenth Century. 27 American Journal of Criminal Law 294 (2000).

The Evolving Police Power: Some Observations for a New Century. 27 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 511 (2000). With Glenn Reynolds. Analyzes recent state court decisions striking down anti-sodomy laws, and suggests that courts in the 21st century—like courts in the 19th century—may increasingly recognize that the police power is not infinite. Also available in Word format.

Short articles

Gun control’s racist history still being written. Complete Colorado. June 9, 2020.

The Racist Influence on Gun Control Laws. When Ida B. Wells urged blacks to use repeating rifles for defense against lynch mobs, gun control advocates invented a new type of gun licensing. Epoch Times. Feb. 5, 2019.

A reliable book about 1877. Volokh.com. May 12, 2010.

Chester Alan Arthur: The Barack Obama of the 19th Century. The Volokh Conspiracy. Sept. 2, 2009.

Constitution Prohibits Deals with Transportation Companies. The United Airlines welfare plan. June 1991.

Presser v. Illinois. Analysis of the 1886 case.

Colorado

Colorado's early self-government and path to statehood. On the periphery of the periphery, Coloradans energetically exercised their inherent rights of sovereignty and self-government. Reason, Volokh Conspiracy. Aug. 1, 2018.

The Right to Arms in Nineteenth Century Colorado. 95 Denver University Law Review 329 (2018).


20th century

World, 20th century, pre-WW II

1935 time machine episode of Colorado Inside-Out. Kopel plays law professor Israel Ben Koplowitz, a Democratic critic of the New Deal.

1927 time machine episode of Colorado Inside-Out. (2008 Heartland Emmy nominee).

Jewish Boxing, Fencing, and Self-Defense. 9/4/06.

Bertilla Boscardin

Maria Goretti.

Sergeant York. Great Hero of the Great War. America's 1st Freedom, Feb. 2005.

Kristallnacht and Arms Control, 11/9/05.


United States early 20th century

Meyer v. Nebraska: As told by the lawyer who won it Washington Post. Feb. 4, 2016.

Evolving Christian Attitudes Towards Personal and National Self-defense. 45 Connecticut Law Review 1709 (2013). Analyzes changes in Christian thought about the use of force, from the 19th to the 21st century.

Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Gambling, and Guns: The Synergistic Constitutional Effects. 6 Albany Government Law Review 307 (2013). With Trevor Burrus.

President: "I do not believe in the Divinity of Christ." Volokh.com. Oct. 8, 2011.

"If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final." President Coolidge's remarks on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Volokh.com. July 4, 2010.

The Bernardine Dohrn of the early 20th century: The terrorist professor at U of Texas law school. Volokh.com. May 24, 2010.

Epic battle for press freedom. In 1905, News owner took on a compromised supreme court. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post, July 1, 2006.

Brothers In Arms. How civil rights flowed from a rifle barrel. Armed black resistance to race riots in the 20th century. Reason.com, Feb. 24, 2005.

The Second Amendment Before the Supreme Court. United States v. Miller and all preceding cases. Liberty. Dec. 2003.


World War II

The Maryland Minute Men of 1942: Armed citizens summoned to homeland defense. Washington Post. Dec. 7, 2015.

Alan Steinweis's bad history. NY Times op-ed denigrating Jewish resistance to the Nazis flubs history. Washington Post. Oct. 16, 2015.

Unarmed Jews defeat mass murder: Revolts at the extermination camps. Washington Post. Oct. 12, 2015.

The Warsaw ghetto uprising: Armed Jews vs. Nazis. Washington Post. Oct. 10, 2015.

Armed Resistance to the Holocaust. 19 Journal of Firearms & Public Policy 144 (2007). Final version in PDF. Earlier version in HTML. Earlier version in Polish/Polski.

Maryland Governor Herbert O'Conor Calls Forth the Militia in WWII. Volokh.com, Feb. 13, 2008.

Today in history: "Juden…waffen!" Volokh.com. April 19, 2011.

Enforcing Godwin's Law. Volokh.com. Jan. 31, 2006.

An Appeal for De Gaulle. France's true greatest day. National Review Online. July 14, 2001.

Anniversary of DeGaulle's birth. Volokh.com. Nov. 22, 2005.

Book review of Target Switzerland. The American Enterprise magazine. Jan./Feb. 1999.

D-Day was almost a German Holiday. June 1994. With Dan Gifford.

The Torch of Freedom. Roosevelt lit the path Kerry's afraid to follow. National Review Online. Oct. 6, 2004.

Why D-Day Mattered. National Review Online. June 6, 2000.

Hitler's Control. The gun control lessons of Nazi history. National Review Online. May 22, 2003. With Richard Griffiths. En français. In italiano.

Gun Bans and "Schindler's List". Independence Institute. Aug. 24, 1994. With William R. Tonso.

Terrorists are much worse than kamikazes, National Review, The Corner. Apr. 17, 2002.

Déjà vu in a liberated Iraq. Winning the war is half the battle; what's harder is winning hearts. Rocky Mountain News/Denver Post. Oct. 25, 2003. Examines 1946 American media coverage of liberated Germany.

Explaining Eisentrager. The Second Amendment is for individual gun owners. National Review Online. April 20, 2004. Español.


Post-WWII, United States

1959 time machine episode of Colorado Inside-Out. Winner of the 2010 award (for 2009 programs) for best Interview/Discussion Program/Special from the Heartland Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

60s sitcom themes: The hidden alien. The strange family that doesn't know it is strange. Volokh.com. Nov. 23, 2011.

Speech in honor of Harry Truman. Boulder County Democrats annual Truman Dinner. May 26, 2004. Longmont, Colorado.

The Truth about the Dixiecrats. What they were about. National Review Online. Dec. 16, 2002.

Her Own Bodyguard. Gun-packing First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. National Review Online. Jan. 24, 2002. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.

Anniversary of Natkong River defense by U.S. & R.O.K. forces, National Review, The Corner. Mar. 4, 2003.


Post-WWII, World

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

Remembering the heroes of Camp Hale. The Tibetan freedom fighters who battled the Chinese Communist colonialists. The Gazette (Denver). Oct. 16, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion Part 6: The Tibetan resistance continues, and thwarts a genocide. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 17, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion. Part 5: 1959, Lhasa, and the Momentous Day. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 16, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion. Part 4: 1958—the Chushi Gangdruk unify the uprising. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 15, 2022.

Tibet's armed resistance to Chinese invasion. Part 3: Eastern Tibet is liberated 1956-57. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 14, 2022.

Tibet's Armed Resistance to Chinese Invasion. Part 2: Communist orders for gun registration lead to revolt. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 13, 2022.

Tibet's Armed Resistance to Chinese Invasion. Part 1: The feckless Tibetan government fails to prepare. Reason/Volokh Conspiracy. March 12, 2022.

The Danger of a Communist Monopoly on the Media and Firearms. The story of the 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia. Epoch Times. June 9, 2019.

All the Way Down the Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England, and Some Lessons for America. 22 Hamline Law Review 399 (1999). With Joseph Olson. PDF.

Lost Battles, Lost Rights. How the British lost their right to arms in the twentieth century, by imposing one "reasonable" law on another, until the right was extinguished. Pamphlet.

Book review of Aaron Zelman, et al., Lethal Laws, 15 New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law 355 (1995).

Communist Gun Control. Gun control in Rumania and the rest of the Warsaw Pact.

Cardinal Mindszenty. National Review, The Corner. Feb. 8, 2003.


1960s

The Highbrow in American Politics: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and the Role of the Intellectual in Politics. Honors Thesis in History, Brown University, May 1982. Awarded Highest Honors, and National Geographic Society Prize.

Ronald Reagan's "Extremism" and the 1966 California Gubernatorial Election. Encyclopedia Britannica blog. Feb. 4, 2011.

Freedom is not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America's Struggle over Black Family Life--from LBJ to Obama. Kopel interviews Brown University history professor James T. Patterson about his book examining the tragic rise of illegitimacy rates, and the American political elite's refusal to address the problem for decades. MP3. 50 minutes.

Conservatives and the Civil Rights Movement. Volokh.com. Sept. 11, 2009.

Mr. President, You're No JFK. The Elian Gonzalez kidnapping. National Review Online. Apr. 24, 2000.

Barry Goldwater and John Andrews. Colorado Leader. Dec. 1, 1990.

Texas-Sized Liar. Book review of Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times 1961-1973, By Robert Dallek. The American Enterprise. Nov./Dec. 1998.

The story of the armed community organizers. The civil rights movement. Volokh.com. February 22, 2010.

How the right to arms saved the non-violent civil rights protesters. Volokh.com. February 8, 2010.


1970s to Present

1972, Richard Nixon Defeats George McGovern: Watergate. Constituting America. June 9, 2016.

Watergate quiz. A quiz with 100 questions about the Watergate scandal. Washington Post. Oct. 29, 2014.

Ronald Reagan's AR-15. Volokh.com. Jan. 15, 2013.

Reagan's infamous speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Despite what the media told you, it was not a racist speech. Volokh.com.  Aug. 16, 2011.

The "San Francisco Democrats" meme. Debunking the notion that Jeanne Kirkpatrick's 1984 foreign policy speech to the Republican National Convention was anti-gay. Volokh.com. April 4, 2011.

Ranking Reagan. How well did he accomplish his own goals? National Review Online. June 8, 2004.

Mid-Term of the Bush-Clinton Administration. Orange County Register. Dec. 19, 1993. Español.

2000 election recount

Illegal Ballots? Hooey. Read the statute. National Review Online. Nov. 10, 2000.

The Palm Beach Legal Precedent. No cause for Dem squawking. National Review Online. Nov. 9, 2000.

The Recount Culture. The controversy about Florida isn't just about politics. National Review Online. Dec. 2, 2000. With David Stolinsky.

Dread the Dred Scott Reference. Don't toss this case around unless you know what you're talking about. National Review Online. Dec. 14, 2000.



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