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.
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)
