Friends, Some of you may be interested in the following Policy Forum across the Potomac.
-- Marc Montoni, Secretary Libertarian Party of Virginia *************************************************************************** From: "David J. Theroux" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unlike during previous election years, talk of new national gun-control legislation has been absent from the current presidential campaign. One reason is that the possibility of stricter gun laws galvanized strong opposition in the run up to the 2004 presidential election. In other words, the topic has become another third rail in American politics. However, there is also a deeper and potentially longer-lasting reason for the silence: more and more legal scholars have come to view the Second Amendment as a guarantee of an individual right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms, rather than, for example, the collective right of states to maintain armed militias. And with the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide this matter, the candidates would rather remain silent than propose policies that the Court s forthcoming decision might make moot. To help shed light on these issues, the Independent Institute will host the Independent Policy Forum, <http://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=137>Is the Second Amendment an Individual Right? , featuring constitutional legal scholar Stephen P. Halbrook and his acclaimed new book <http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=72>The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, and renowned historian Joyce Lee Malcolm at the Independent Institute s Washington, D.C., conference center, Monday, June 9, 2008. (Please see below for further details.) With time running short and limited space, please make your reservations as soon as possible by contacting me or the Institute's Events Coordinator, Ms. Nichelle Beardsley, at 510-632-1366 x118 or by <http://www.independent.org/events/rsvp.asp?eventid=137>registering online. We hope to see you on Monday, June 9! Best regards, David David J. Theroux Founder and President <http://www.independent.org>The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA 95621-1428 510-632-1366 Phone 510-568-6040 Fax <http://www.independent.org/aboutus/emailform.asp?id=531>Send Email ***************************************** <http://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=137>Is the Second Amendment an Individual Right? (Washington, D.C.; 6/9/08) Last year, a federal appeals court overturned the District of Columbia s ban on handguns. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the case, District of Columbia vs. Heller, after nearly seventy years of silence on the Second Amendment. Observers expect the Court to finally settle the legal question of whether the constitutional "right of the people to keep and bear arms" is an individual right held by all, or a "collective right" of the state governments to maintain militias. What did the Founders intend when they drafted the Second Amendment? Please join us as constitutional legal scholar and Independent Institute Research Fellow Stephen P. Halbrook and George Mason University Law School legal historian Joyce Lee Malcolm examine these issues. Dr. Halbrook s new book, <http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=72>The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, is the authoritative account of the Founders aims. Professor Malcolm s book, <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674893077/theindepeende-20/002-6508816-9461647>To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right, traces that right to English law and traditions and provides a comprehensive history of the transmission of that right to the American colonies. Independent Institute President David J. Theroux will moderate. WHO: <http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=517>Stephen P. Halbrook is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and author of the new book, <http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=72>The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and Ph.D. in social philosophy from Florida State University. Now a practicing attorney in Fairfax, Virginia, he has taught legal and political philosophy at George Mason University, Howard University, and the Tuskegee Institute, and has won three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Among his other books are <http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=23>That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right; Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876; State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees; Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II; and Firearms La w Deskbook. His popular writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Times, and elsewhere. <http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=1003>Joyce Lee Malcolm is Professor of Legal History at George Mason University School of Law and former Director of Research for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Malcolm received her Ph.D. in history from Brandeis University. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she has taught at Princeton University, Bentley College, Boston University, Northeastern University and Cambridge University, and she has served as Senior Advisor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program, Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies, and Bye Fellow at Robinson College, Cambridge University. Her books include To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right; Guns and Violence: The English Experience; Caesar's Due: Loyalty and King Charles; Stepchild of the Revolution: A Slave Child in Revolutionary America; The Struggle for Sovereignty: Seventeenth-Century English Political Tracts (2 vols.), and The Scene of the Battle, 1775. WHEN: Monday, June 9, 2008 Reception and book signing: 5:00 p.m. Program: 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. Q&A to follow WHERE: The Independent Institute 1319 Eighteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 <http://www.independent.org/aboutus/map.asp#wash>Map and directions RESERVATIONS: Complimentary Phone: 510-632-1366 x118 <http://www.independent.org/events/rsvp.asp?eventid=137>Reserve tickets online Copies of <http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=72>The Founders' Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms, by Stephen P. Halbrook, will be available for purchase at a special 25% discount. PRAISE for The Founders' Second Amendment: The Founders Second Amendment is an impressive achievement. . . Halbrook has produced what promises to be the standard work for years to come on the original intent of the Second Amendment. Donald W. Livingston, Professor of Philosophy, Emory University The Founders Second Amendment is crisply written, rich with history, and sure to be valuable to anyone interested in understanding the original meaning of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Tennessee Stephen Halbrook s The Founders Second Amendment is first-rate work, utterly convincing. This is a solid and important work. Forrest McDonald, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of History, University of Alabama The subject of The Founders Second Amendment is currently front-and-center as a hot and major controversy. Well researched and well presented, Halbrook s book has brought forward a substantial amount of new research, not redundant of what others have provided, and this book will find a solid place among leading works on the subject. William W. Van Alstyne, Lee Professor of Law, College of William and Mary Like much of Halbrook s other excellent work, The Founders Second Amendment is both well-written and full of fascinating details. It will serve as an important resource for professional scholars and interested laypersons. One especially useful aspect of Halbrook s work is that the author so consistently lets a huge variety of original sources speak for themselves. Nelson Lund, Patrick Henry Professor of Constitutional Law, George Mason University <http://www.independent.org/publications/books/book_summary.asp?bookID=72>Further information about The Founders Second Amendment. <http://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=137>Further information about this event. *************************************************************************** -- end -- ############################################################# Have an announcement you'd like to post? 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