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  Comparative Law

  George A. Mocsary, Nicholas James Johnson, E. Gregory Wallace, and David B. Kopel

  This chapter covers arms and resistance provisions in national constitutions comparative studies of arms issues and case studies of arms policies in individual nationsbrbrPart A covers national constitutions and reviews the following topics 1 the three nations besides the United States that have an express constitutional right to arms 2 constitutional guarantees of selfdefense 3 constitutional affirmations of the right and duty to resist tyranny or illegitimate government 4 constitutional support for national liberation movements in other nations 5 a short case study of Ghana and its constitutional duty of forcible resistance to usurpation of government and 6 the constitutional right to security in the homebrbrPart B excerpts studies examining the consequences of varying rates of gun ownership among a large number of countries One purpose of Part B is for students to develop skills in evaluating statistical studies Accordingly Part B begins with an explanation of some basic statistical methods and terminology The first excerpted article by Don Kates and Gary Mauser observes similarities and difference of the United States and Europe brbrThe next section introduces complex statistical analysis It begins with a summary of statistical research methods and vocabulary Next is an article by Professor Gary Kleck examining the strengths and weaknesses of various studies on the relationship between gun ownership levels and homicide levels Although Kleck analyzes data within the United States his methodological cautions provide a foundation for evaluating the international studies that follow As Professor Kleck explains one of the most daunting problems is accurately estimating levels of gun ownership especially over timebrbrSection B3 presents an especially sophisticated article by John N van Kesteren that examines 26 countries mostly European plus the United States to look for relationship between gun ownership levels and violence brbrSection B4 directs attention to the importance of culture in comparative scholarship An article by Irshad Altheimer and Matthew Boswell reports the diverse effects of higher rates of gun ownership in Western developed nations Eastern Europe and Latin America A second article by David Kopel Carlisle Moody and Howard Nemerov investigates the relationship between gun density and various measures of economic freedom economic prosperity political freedom civil freedom and noncorruption in 78 nationsbrbrFinally in Section B5 Nicholas Johnson describes ÔÇ£the remainder problemÔÇØ if social science did prove that greater gun density causes the United States to have higher rates of homicide and other gun crime than some other countries what can be done meaningfully to reduce US gun density brbrPart C presents case studies of gun control and gun rights in several nations It begins with the United Kingdom starting in the early twentieth century For earlier UK history see Chapter 2 For contrast the next nation is Switzerland with its thriving militia systembrbrThe Western Hemisphere comes next with Canada Mexico and Venezuela Asia and the Pacific are covered in sections on Australia Japan China and Thailand Kenya and South Africa are the case studies for Africa Some Notes amp Questions following sections on particular countries present material about other nearby countriesbrbrPart D considers broad perspectives in the three different ways First an article by Professor Carlisle Moody investigates European homicide trends over the last 800 years and observes that growing availability of firearms that could be kept always ready for selfdefense wheel locks and flintlocks paralleled a sharp decline in homicides brbr An essay by Professor Kopel compares and contrasts homicides in the United States and Europe during the twentieth century Europe's homicide rate is vastly higher'once one takes into account murder by government If one makes certain assumptions designed to produce the highest possible figure the United States had up to 745000 additional gun homicides in the twentieth century because the United States did not have gun control laws as restrictive as those in Europe Conversely Europe had about 871 million additional homicides by government because Europeans did not have a right to arms The essay describes the gun control policies of dictators in Europe and elsewhere It concludes with a pair of case studies showing the accomplishments of armed resistance to genocide by Armenians and other Christians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I and by Jews in Europe during World War IIbrbrThe third section of Part D investigates at length the largest mass homicide in history the murders of over 86 million Chinese by the Mao Zedong dictatorship in 194976 The essay also details armed resistance to Mao and includes a detailed description of Tibetan uprisings While Mao adopted diverse arms control policies at different times the objective was always the same his political supporters would be armed and his opponents would not

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  Firearms Policy and Status

  George A. Mocsary, Nicholas James Johnson, E. Gregory Wallace, and David B. Kopel

  Firearms policy debates involve the special concerns of diverse groups in American society This Chapter examines disparate views about the costs and benefits of firearms in the context of race gender sexual orientation age disability marijuana use military service and Indian tribes brbrPrevious chapters have primarily focused on judicial decisions and legislative and historical material The content here is different For the first five groups in the above list their views are presented through amicus briefs most of them procon briefs from Heller Pedagogically the briefs are the opportunity to study how policy advocates serve as genuine ÔÇ£friends of the courtÔÇØ by presenting the court with specialized expertise and information As you will see there is quite a diversity of writing styles in highquality amicus briefs The complete briefs are available at Scotusblog's Heller Case Page For beginning lawyers with an interest in public affairs helping with an amicus brief is an excellent and educational pro bono projectbrbrThe Chapter is divided into the following PartsbrbrA Firearms Policy and the Black CommunitybrbrB GenderbrbrC Age and Physical DisabilitybrbrD Sexual OrientationbrbrE Categories of Prohibited Persons Mental Illness Marijuana and the MilitarybrbrF Indian Tribesbr

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  In-Depth Explanation of Firearms and Ammunition

  George A. Mocsary, Nicholas James Johnson, E. Gregory Wallace, and David B. Kopel

  Many aspects of gun policy are driven by the mechanics of firearms Knowledge of how firearms and ammunition operate is thus essential to careful thinking about firearms law and the Second Amendment Those who learn shape and review laws should make every effort to understand basic facts about the operation and use of the firearms involved This unfortunately does not happen in many instancesbrbrThis chapter is designed to help the reader understand the basics of how firearms and ammunition function Part A presents the basic parts of a firearm with summary diagrams Part B describes the various components of firearm ammunition'the bullet case primer and gunpowder Part C discusses the operation and safe handling of modern firearms Part D focuses on the three major types of modern firearms'handguns rifles and shotguns'explaining their specific features and uses Part E examines specialty types of firearms and accessories including those covered by the National Firearms Act machine guns bump stocks silencers or suppressors as well as muzzleloaders and armorpiercing ammunition Part F covers nonfirearm arms such as stun guns edged weapons air and paintball guns bows chemical sprays and blunt weapons

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  International Law

  George A. Mocsary, Michael P. O'Shea, Nicholas James Johnson, and E. Gregory Wallace

  pThis online chapter covers internationallaw principles and documents involving selfdefense and firearms control International law traditionally dealt with relations between nations but has expanded to cover interactions between states and individuals brbrppPart A covers the leading international legal conventions on the right of selfdefense or gun control the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the UN Programme of Action against the illicit trade in small arms the Firearms Protocol and International Tracing Instrument the Arms Trade Treaty and the UN's International Standards on Arms Control ISACS Part A also covers the work of various UN bodies such as the Human Rights CouncilbrbrppPart B focuses on major regional firearms agreements These include CIFTA applying to the western hemisphere including the United States the European Firearms Directive and the Nairobi ProtocolbrbrppPart C steps back from current issues to examine the foundations of international law and the individual and collective rights of selfdefense This Part presents the writings of Suarez Grotius Pufendorf Vattel and other founders of international law From the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries these geniuses created what we today call ÔÇ£classical international lawÔÇØbrbrppPart D addresses the most important international law problem of the last century genocide To what extent if any does international law provide for forceful resistance to mass murder For forceful resistance to other violations of human rightsbrbrppLastly Part E presents arguments for whether and how international gun control should be implemented The Part also examines how ÔÇ£norms entrepreneursÔÇØ use international law in service of gun control or gun rights brp

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  Insuring the Unthinkable

  George A. Mocsary

  Recent mass shootings have led to public and private responses implicating insurance The public response consisted of calls to require firearm owners to purchase liability insurance and has been discussed at length elsewhere This article examines the private response the steady proliferation of ÔÇ£active shooter insuranceÔÇØ more recently called ÔÇ£active assailant insuranceÔÇØ collectively ASAA insurance Although these policies cover the forprofit businesses nonprofit institutions and even municipalities that purchase them rather than shooting victims or others impacted by a tragic event benefits would flow through to these individuals if a covered event occursbr brThis article assays ASAA insurance along several dimensions Part II considers factors impacting the effectiveness of the insurance in compensating insureds for losses stemming from ASAA incidents Part III reviews the ways in which ASAA insurers can provide loss prevention services enable insureds to prevent or mitigate losses and efficiently manage claims and resulting litigation Part IV concludes

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  Antecedents of the Second Amendment

  George A. Mocsary, Nicholas James Johnson, E. Gregory Wallace, and David B. Kopel

  This Chapter provides a sample of the arguments that various philosophers have offered for or against arms possession and about appropriate constraints on the use of arms Many of the readings in this Chapter are part of the intellectual background of the Second Amendment These include material from ancient Greece and Rome Part B the JudeoChristian tradition Part C and European political philosophy Part D Other material especially Part A on ancient China was unknown to the Americans who adopted the Second Amendment Yet the same questions that concerned Confucians and Taoists have been at issue throughout historybrbrOne key issue is personal ethics Is it moral to use force or deadly force in selfdefense Does the answer depend on whether the attacker is an individual criminal or a governmental tyrantbrbrThe other major question is the distribution of force Because arms greatly amplify the user's physical force should government have a monopoly on arms possession and use brbrOne theme of this Chapter is the benefits and dangers of militias versus standing armies Standing armies consist of fulltime soldiers usually but not always armed by the state In contrast a militia consists of soldiers who only serve for part of the year or in situations of necessity The rest of the time they maintain their civilian occupations as farmers merchants and so on Usually they supply their own arms A select militia is a hybrid in which militiamen are drawn from a small segment of the population and spend more perhaps all of their time soldiering and may depend on their militia pay for their livelihoods br

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  Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy - Online Chapters

  George A. Mocsary, Michael P. O'Shea, Nicholas James Johnson, and David B. Kopel

  These are the online Chapters of the law school casebook Firearms Law and the Second Amendment Regulation Rights and Policy by Nicholas J Johnson David B Kopel George A Mocsary and Michael P O'Shea Aspen Publishers Chapter 12 Social Science Chapter 13 International Law Chapter 14 Comparative Law Chapter 15 InDepth Explanation of Firearms and AmmunitionChapter 12 presents empirical data and studies on firearm use and misuse Most of the chapter involves criminological issues like gun use in crime resisting crime and guns as deterrents to crime The chapter also covers many facets of the debates about gun control or gun ownership as strategies for reducing crime In addition to the strictly criminological issues it presents information on suicide and accidents Chapter 13 covers international law principles and documents involving selfdefense and firearms control The chapter like modern international law generally deals with both relations between nations and interactions between states and individuals The chapter covers modern international law conventions classical international law based on the treatises of scholars such as Grotius Pufendorf and Vattel who helped found the global system of international law in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries the right of resistance under international law especially resistance to genocide and the perspective of Harold Koh former Legal Adviser to the US State Department on how and why international gun control should be implemented Chapter 14 compares and contrasts the domestic noninternational gun laws of various nations and examining the possible effects of those different laws Chapter 15 provides a detailed explanation of the various types of firearms and ammunition including how they function It also provides some basics about the many types of nonfirearm arms