History

Greece

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

Ancient Asia

Self-defense in Asian Religions, 18 Journal on Firearms and Public Policy (2006, forthcoming). Also includes modern Asia.

Ancient Israel

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.

blog: 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

Middle Ages

Wenceslaus

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

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

Thomas Aquinas.

Saint Hildegund.

The Swiss and Their Guns. By Dave Kopel and Stephen D'Andrilli. 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. PDF. With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen.

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

Sixteenth Century

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.

blog: "We Gather Together" and the Dutch War of Independence, 11/22/05.

Seventeenth Century, World

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

"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).

The Intelligent Man's Guide to Lying Under Oath. A discussion of Bill Clinton, the persecution of Catholics in 17th century England, the Treatise of Equivocation, and jury independence. Liberty magazine. March 1999.

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

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

Bodin, Becarria, 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.

United States Founding and Early Republic

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.

George Mason, 4/1/06.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

"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.

Nineteenth Century, World

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.

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.

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).

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

Antebellum Nineteenth Century United States

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

Elizabeth Ann Seton

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.

Religious Fright. The Left is appalled by President Bush’s faith. National Review Online. Mar. 18, 2003. Presidents Jackson and Truman.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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. 

Our Second Amendment: The Original Perspective. St. George Tucker. The American Guardian. July 1998.

"The Second Amendment in the Nineteenth Century," 1998 BYU Law Review 1359.

War Between the States, Reconstruction

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

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.

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.

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

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. In PDF. (This web version is slightly longer than the text which was printed in the magazine, and is therefore laid out somewhat differently.)

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

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

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

"The Posse Comitatus Act: Venerable Safeguard—Or Old Hat?" Cato Institute Policy Forum. Oct. 16, 2002. Dave Kopel, Stephen Halbrook, and Paul Schott Stevens. Moderated by Rep. Bob Barr. Available in RealVideo and RealAudio.

Presser v. Illinois. Analysis of the 1886 case.

"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," with Glenn Harlan Reynolds. 27 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 511  (2000). 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.

World, 20th century, pre-WW II

blog: 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. PDF.

blog: Kristallnacht and Arms Control, 11/9/05.

United States 20th century

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

Armed Resistance to the Holocaust. Working paper. In PDF. In HTML. Polski/Polish.

Enforcing Godwin's Law, 1/31/06.

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

Anniversary of DeGaulle's birth, 11/22/05.

Book review of Target Switzerland. The American Enterprise magazine.

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. After Pearl Harbor, the United States responded by invading neutral French North Africa.

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, 4/17/02.

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

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.

blog: Anniversary of Natkong River defense by U.S. & R.O.K. forces, 8/4/03.

Post-WWII, World

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

blog: Cardinal Mindszenty, 2/8/03.

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

"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. Alternative html layout, for easier reading. PDF version also available.

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.

1960s

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 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.