Dave Kopel is Research Director of the Independence Institute, a civil liberties
think tank in Golden, Colo., and an Associate Policy Analyst with the Cato Institute,
in Washington, D.C. He has served as an Assistant Attorney General for Colorado,
enforcing hazardous waste and Superfund law. In 1985 he graduated magna cum
laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served on the law
review. In 1982 he graduated from Brown University, with Highest Honors for
his history thesis on Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. In 1998-99 he was an adjunct
professor of law at New York University.
Kopel is a regular panelist on the PBS public affairs show Colorado Inside-Out
in Denver, a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, and a Contributing Editor
for National Review Online and Liberty. He has testified many times before Congress
and state legislatures on topics including gun control, free speech, and criminal
justice. His website is davekopel.org.
Kopels books related to firearms law and policy include, Gun Control and
Gun Rights (with Andrew McClurg and Brannon Denning), which is the first law
school and university textbook on the subject; No More Wacos: Whats Wrong
with Federal Law Enforcement, and How to Fix It (with Paul Blackman), which
won the Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of
Civil Liberties; Guns: Who Should Have Them?; Gun Control in Great Britain:
Saving Lives or Constricting Liberty?; and The Samurai, the Mountie, and the
Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies?, which was
named Book of the Year by the International Criminology Division of the American
Society of Criminology. He was a member of the Editorial Board for Guns in American
Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law.
He has authored dozens of articles in scholarly journals, including the University
of Pennsylvania Law Review, Brown Journal of World Affairs, Connecticut Law
Review, Maryland Law Review, Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia,
Quarterly Journal of Ideology, Michigan Law Review, BYU Law Review, Tennessee
Law Review, Temple Law Review, Journal of Contemporary Law, Asia-Pacific Law
Review, St. Louis University Public Law Review, William and Mary Bill of Rights
Journal, Political Communication, Arizona Law Review, Criminal Justice Policy
Review, and the American Journal of Criminal Law. Kopel is Editor-in-Chief of
the Journal on Firearms & Public Policy.
Attorney Stephen P. Halbrook, Ph.D.
Stephen P. Halbrook is an attorney in private practice with offices
in Fairfax, Virginia. He has successfully argued three cases before the U.S.
Supreme Court: Castillo v. United States, 530 U.S. 120 (2000), which upheld
the right to jury trial concerning firearms types in the Branch Davidian prosecution;
Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 98 (1997), which struck down federal mandates
to the states under the Brady law; and United States v. Thompson/Center Arms
Co., 504 U.S. 505 (1992), which applied the rule of lenity to firearms definitions.
His books include, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional
Right; Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms; Firearms
Law Deskbook; A Right to Bear Arms; and Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality
in World War II, which has also been published in German, French, and Italian
editions.
Halbrook holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Florida State University and a J.D.
from Georgetown University Law Center. His litigation practice includes representation
of the National Rifle Association and other nonprofit organizations, and his
pro bono amicus curiae clients include the National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers and the Cato Institute. He is a Fellow with the Independent
Institute. To learn more about Mr. Halbrook, visit stephenhalbrook.com.
Alan Korwin
Alan Korwin, author of three books and co-author of seven others,
is a full-time freelance writer, consultant and businessman with a twenty-five-year
track record. He is a founder and two-term past president of the Arizona Book
Publishing Association, which has presented him with its Visionary Leadership
award, named in his honor, the Korwin Award. He has received national awards
for his publicity work as a member of the Society for Technical Communication,
and is a past board member of the Arizona chapter of the Society of Professional
Journalists.
Working with American Express, Mr. Korwin wrote the executive-level strategic
plan that defined its worldwide telecommunications strategy for the 1990s; he
wrote the business plan that raised $5 million in venture capital and launched
SkyMall; he did the publicity for Pulitzer Prize cartoonist Steve Bensons
fourth book; and he had a hand in developing ASPED, Arizonas economic
strategic plan. Korwins writing appears often in a wide spectrum of local
and national publications.
Korwin turned his first book, The Arizona Gun Owners Guide, into a self-published
best-seller, now in its 20th edition. With his wife Cheryl he operates Bloomfield
Press, which has grown into the largest producer and distributor of gun-law
books in the country. It is built around six books he has completed on the subject
including the unabridged guide Gun Laws of America, an expanding line of related
items, and countless radio and TV appearances. Supreme Court Gun Cases is his
10th book.
Alan Korwin is originally from New York City, where his clients included IBM,
AT&T, NYNEX and others, many with real names. He is a pretty good guitarist
and singer, with a penchant for parody (his last band was The Cartridge Family).
In 1986, finally married, he moved to the Valley of the Sun. It was a joyful
and successful move.