Gun Control and Gun Rights: A Reader and Guide [Paperback]

Andrew McClurg (Editor), David B. Kopel (Editor), Brannon Denning (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0814747604 | ISBN-13: 978-0814747605 | Publication Date: June 1, 2002

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

The second amendment is the most hotly debated and controversial right in the Constitution. In light of the recent surge of school shootings and other gun-related crimes, gun policy has become one of our leading national concerns, affecting politicians, gun manufacturers, sport shooters, and ordinary citizens alike.

Showcasing viewpoints from all sides of the gun control debate, Gun Control and Gun Rights, presents the first balanced gun policy textbook for use by undergraduates, graduate students, law students and the general public.

This comprehensive anthology includes selections from legal cases, hunting stories, public policy briefs and journalistic accounts. Anyone looking for a fair, even-handed account of the gun issue will find it in this book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Most academic literature regarding firearms policy is one-sided advocacy scholarship. . . . This book seeks to create such a balance."
-Future Survey

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About the Author

Andrew J. McClurg is professor of law at the Florida International University College of Law.

David B. Kopel is Research Director at the Independence Institute, an Associate Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute, and Adjunct Professor Advanced Constitutional Law at Denver University, Sturm College of Law.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814747604
• ISBN-13: 978-0814747605
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,005,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Current Events > Gun Control

More About the Author

David B. Kopel is Research Director of the Independence Institute, a public policy research organization in Golden, Colorado, and is an Associate Policy Analyst with the Cato Institute, in Washington.
He is also an Adjunct Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law at Denver University, Sturm College of Law.
Kopel is one of several contributors to The Volokh Conspiracy, a group weblog of several legal academics. From time to time he writes for the Wall Street Journal and other periodicals.
He is the author of 13 books, and 67 scholarly articles published in journals such as the Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, SAIS Review, and the Brown Journal on World Affairs. His topics include constitutional law, international law, criminal justice, technology, antitrust, media issues, and environmental policy. He has contributed entries to nine academic encyclopedias, and served on the Board of Editors for one.
His research has been cited by eight state supreme courts, three federal circuit court of appeals decision, and 535 law review articles.
On March 18, 2008, he appeared before the United States Supreme Court as part of the team presenting the oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court's first major case on the Second Amendment since 1939. His Heller amicus brief for a law coalition of law enforcement organizations and district attorneys was cited four times in the Court's Heller opinions.
Kopel serves as a peer reviewer for Criminal Justice Policy Review, and for grant proposals for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Before joining the Independence Institute, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Colorado, dealing with enforcement of hazardous waste, Superfund, and other environmental laws. In 1998-99, he served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan Law School, and earned a B.A. in History with Highest Honors from Brown University, where his thesis on Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., was awarded the National Geographic Society Prize.
Websites:
Independence Institute, independenceinstitute.org
Cato Institute: www.cato.org
Kopel: davekopel.org, kopel.tw (Chinese)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reasoned, Balanced and Badly Needed, June 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Gun Control and Gun Rights: A Reader and Guide (Paperback)

For the most part, the gun-policy debate in the United States could be well summed up by Yeats' words: The best lack all conviction while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity. Truly honest scholarship, in the sense of a dispassionate exploration of the issues underlying the debate, has been sorely lacking. Even the best, scientifically-based work has taken the form of attempts to prove something about the social benefits or social costs of private gun ownership. No one, it seems, has come forward to frame the questions that the debate ought to be seeking to answer.

Andrew McClurg, David Kopel and Brannon Denning have done just that. While holding very different personal views - McClurg is an advocate of increased gun control while Kopel and Denning are in favor of broader gun rights - these three have built a framework within which a meaningful debate can begin.

Anyone who truly cares about finding a workable resolution to our country's disagreements over gun ownership - anyone, that is, who will make the effort to get beyond simply demanding that things be settled their way - will benefit from reading this book.

I want to stress how very important it is that we, as informed, thinking citizens, take control of this debate. Politicians work to extend and ensure their tenures by polarizing constituencies around divisive issues. They have, in all too many instances, no genuine desire to find solutions that meet and respect the vital interests of all. If lasting resolutions are to be achieved, if answers are to be found that we can all live with, they will have to be built from the ground up in the minds of individuals who have taken responsibility for their own beliefs.