……Cites Independence Institute’s David B. Kopel 7 Times !!!!!!!!!!!

On Dec. 17 the United States Department of Justice today released the
most thorough analysis of the Second Amendment ever conducted by the
Executive Branch of the United States government. The title of the 93
page report, with 437 footnotes, is “Whether the Second Amendment
Guarantees an Individual Right.” As the report’s subtitle states, “The
Second Amendment secures a right of individuals generally, not a right
of States or a right restricted to persons serving in militias.”

The report cites the Second Amendment historical research of David B.
Kopel seven times. (See notes 33, 90, 290, 342, 403, 428, 437 and
accompanying text.) The report also frequently cites Stephen Halbrook,
Don Kates, and David Hardy.

The report cites the following Kopel articles:

“It isn’t about Duck Hunting: The British Origins of the Right to Arms”
(book review of Joyce Malcolm’s To Keep and Bear Arms), 96 Michigan Law
Review 1333 (1995).
http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/It_Isn’t_About_Duck_Hunting.htm

“The Second Amendment in the Nineteenth Century,” 1998 BYU Law Review 1359.
http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/19thcentury.htm

“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.
http://www.davekopel.org/2A/LawRev/hk-coxe.htm

Although Attorneys General in the Nixon and Clinton administrations had
adopted the position that the Second Amendment does protect individual
rights, Kopel’s research has shown that Attorneys General from the
administrations of Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson,
Benjamin Harrison, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan recognized an
individual Second Amendment right.

http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel052901.shtml

Thus, the current Bush administration position is very much within the
mainstream of historical policy. However, the new DOJ memo is much more
thorough and persuasive than anything the Department of Justice has ever
produced on the subject.