Earlier this week, my longtime coauthor Dr. Joanne D. Eisen passed away. In this post, I’d like to describe one part of her admirable life: her scholarship and writing in support of human rights, particularly self-defense.
Joanne Dale Eisen was a wife, a mother, and a dentist. For most of her career, she lived in New York State. So did optometrist Dr. Paul H. Gallant, who passed away in 2015. Paul was a devoted husband and father. Paul and Joanne met via their mutual interest in the right to arms and began a long-term writing collaboration. Their families were very tolerant of how much time the pair spent on email and on the telephone working together.
In 2000, Paul and Joanne approached me, and we began a decade-long collaboration that resulted in a dozen law review articles and over three dozen magazine articles. A full list appears at the end of this Post. Joanne was an outstanding researcher, and she would gather sources and conduct the basic factual research. Paul would write a first draft, which I would revise, and to which I would add legal analysis.
Some of our short articles, especially our early articles for National Review Online, addressed topics in the American right to arms debate. However, all of the journal articles, and many of the shorter ones, described the plight of defenseless victims in other nations. These articles covered Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Canada, East Timor, Ethiopia (Anuak genocide), Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya, Mali, New Zealand (Chatham Islands, Moriori genocide by Maori), Ottoman Empire (Armenian genocide), Panama, Papua New Guinea (Bougainville), Uganda, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe. As the list indicates, Joanne was a tremendous researcher.
During the first decade of this century, the propaganda machines of the United Nations and the gun ban organizations were producing a vast quantity of disinformation to promote the prohibition of firearms, particularly firearms owned for personal defense against criminals, criminal gangs, and criminal governments. On the other side, there was very little scholarly rebuttal, other than what Paul, Joanne, and I produced. For example, the UN-fabricated claim that there are 740,000 global deaths annually from small arms, which we exposed in: How Many Global Deaths from Arms? Reasons to Question the 740,000 Factoid being used to Promote the Arms Trade Treaty, 5 NYU Journal of Law & Liberty 672 (2010).
More generally, the UN and other anti-human rights organizations enthusiastically promoted forcible confiscation of arms from decent people by pointing out the harms caused by firearms in the hands of criminals. Yet gun prohibitionists were typically reticent about describing what happened after disarmament was accomplished: namely mass murder and other atrocities perpetrated by governments or by entities allied with governments. Like Horatius at the Bridge, Joanne and Paul fought nearly alone to report the catastrophic consequences of disarming ordinary people, particularly in less-developed nations.
Joanne until shortly before her death, and Paul until his passing in 2015, also wrote many articles with other writers, including Canadian professor Gary Mauser and their Long Island friend Alan Chwick.
Joanne and Paul’s scholarship on human rights has been cited in 44 law review articles, not counting in articles by me, and in dozens of books and journal articles in other disciplines.
Joanne’s dedication to human rights was not an abstraction. During research on Ethiopia, Joanne came into contact with a dissident Ethiopian journalist from the oft-persecuted Oromo ethnic group, whom the government had attempted to assassinate. With my assistance (relying on the advice of immigration lawyers I knew), arrangements were made for him to escape and seek asylum in the United States. Joanne took him into her home and made him a de facto member of her family.
Like Paul Gallant, Joanne Eisen lived a life that changed the world for the better. Her scholarly legacy will endure for many years to come. Collaborating with Joanne and Paul has been one of the honors of my life.
Bibliography of Gallant and Eisen writing with Kopel
Journal articles, chapters, monographs
How Many Global Deaths from Arms? Reasons to Question the 740,000 Factoid being used to Promote the Arms Trade Treaty, 5 NYU Journal of Law & Liberty 672 (2010).
Justice for All: A Better Path to Global Firearms Control, 2 Jindal Global L. Rev. 203 (2010).
The Arms Trade Treaty: Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Prospects for Arms Embargoes on Human Rights Violators, 114 Penn State Law Review 891 (2010).
Gun Control and the Right to Arms after 9/11, in The Impact of 9/11 and the New Legal Landscape. (Palgrave MacMillan: Matthew J. Morgan ed., 2009).
Human Rights and Gun Confiscation, 26 Quinnipiac Law Review 383 (2008). Examines human rights abuses in gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda, and in South Africa’s quasi-confiscatory licensing law. Also provides the most complete collection ever presented of international survey data about why people in various countries own guns.
The Human Right of Self-Defense, 22 BYU Journal of Public Law 43 (2008). Rebutting a report by a UN Special Rapporteur claiming that there is no right of self-defense, this article surveys international law from its earliest days to the present, with extensive attention of the classical Founders of international law.
The Gold Standard of Gun Control, 2 Journal of Law, Economics & Policy 417 (2006). Book review of Joyce Malcolm’s “Guns and Violence: The English Experience.” In HTML.
Is Resisting Genocide a Human Right? 81 Notre Dame Law Review 1275 (2006). Using the Sudandese government’s genocide against the Darfuri people as an example, the article studies the Genocide Convention and argues that resistance to genocide is a rule of international law that supersedes any contrary rule, so that the acquisition of arms by the targets of an ongoing genocide is lawful regardless of any restrictions in international or national law.
Human Rights Atrocities: The Consequences of United Nations Gun Confiscation in East Africa. Independence Institute Issue Backgrounder no. 2006-F. June 2006. How U.N.-backed gun confiscation programs in Kenya and Uganda have led to murder, torture, and arson, and have turned tens of thousands of pastoral tribespeople into starving refugees. This monograph was released at the opening of the UN Small Arms conference, and a few days later, the UN announced the suspension of its funding for the East African gun confiscation program. In PDF. In HTML.
Microdisarmament: The Consequences for Public Safety and Human Rights, 73 UMKC Law Review 969 (2005). Examines UN-sponsored programs to disarm people in Cambodia, Bougainville, Albania, Panama, Guatemala, and Mali. Alternate version in HTML.
Firearms Possession by “Non-State Actors”: the Question of Sovereignty, 8 Texas Review of Law and Politics 373 (2004). The UN’s theory that “non-state actors” (i.e., ordinary citizens) should not have firearms is based on the false premise that the government rather than the people are sovereign.
Global Deaths from Firearms: Searching for Plausible Estimates, 8 Texas Review of Law and Politics 114 (2003). Dissecting the false figures invented by the UN and its minions.
Gun Ownership and Human Rights, 9 Brown Journal of World Affairs 3 (Winter/Spring 2003, no. 2). Alternate version in HTML.
Excerpts in textbooks
Human Rights Atrocities: The Consequences of United Nations Gun Confiscation in East Africa, in Gun Control. Global Viewpoints (Greenhaven/Gale, 2010).
An Arms Trade Treaty Could Encourage Human Rights Violations, in The Arms Trade. Current Controversies series. (Greenhaven Press 2009).
Short articles
The Guns of Sudan. Gun confiscation in South Sudan makes a bad situation for human rights even worse. The New Ledger. July 7, 2009.
Genocide Resistance. The possession of arms saved many Armenians. National Review Online, Oct. 16, 2007.
Why Reveal Who’s Concealed? What possible motive could some arrogant anti-gun newspapers have for publishing the names of Right-to-Carry permit holders? America’s 1st Freedom, May 2007.
Guns Don’t Kill People, Gun Control Kills People. Uganda terrorizes its own citizens under the auspices of a UN gun control mandate. Reason Online. Feb. 23, 2007. Español.
The Other War in Ethiopia. The destruction of the disarmed Anuak people of southwestern Ethiopia. Tech Central Station. Dec. 29, 2006.
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.
Can 911 Save You? America’s 1st Freedom. May 2005.
911 Is a Joke… or Is It? Let’s Find Out. Tech Central Station. Jan. 5, 2005.
Ambrose E. Burnside. General, Governor, Senator, Civil Rights Activist and First President of the NRA. America’s 1st Freedom. Nov. 2004.
Avoiding Genocide. The right to bear arms could have saved Sudan. National Review Online. Aug. 18, 2004.
The Hero of Gettysburg. Winfield Scott Hancock shot straight. The Civil War General who became the Democratic nominee for President in 1880, and later the President of the National Rifle Association. National Review Online. July 2, 2004.
Lions vs. Tigers. The precarious state of Sri Lanka. National Review Online. Mar. 3, 2004.
Up in Flames. Mali’s gun show. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2003.
A Moriori Lesson. A brief history of pacifism. When the Maori invaded the islands of the Moriori, the leader of the latter was so committed to pacifism that the Moriori would not fight back. As a result, they were enslaved and exterminated. National Review Online. Apr. 11, 2003.
When Policy Kills. More deadly U.N. issues. The Srebrenica massacre and the U.N.’s disarmament policies. National Review Online. Jan. 27, 2003. In italiano.
Disarming Uganda. International gun-control nonsense. National Review Online. Dec. 11, 2002.
No Choice. “Weapons-effect” paralysis. National Review Online. Apr. 17, 2002. Addressing the assertion that the mere sight of a gun or words about a gun make people violent.
Birth of a Nation. What East Timor and the U.S. have in common. And what they don’t. National Review Online. Mar. 12, 2002. With Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.
Little Island that Roared. The story of Bougainville, and gun prohibition. National Review Online. Feb. 6, 2002.
Her Own Bodyguard. Gun-packing First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. National Review Online. Jan. 24, 2002.
Speak No Evil. The European Union revives the offense of Seditious Libel. Chronicles. Feb. 2002.
A World Without Guns. Be forewarned: It’s not a pretty picture. If there were no guns, then physically powerful men would have their way with everyone else. National Review Online. Dec. 5, 2001. En français. Español. Português. Italiano.
Jamaica Farewell. The consequences of gun prohibition. National Review Online. Sept. 10, 2001. In português.
Mad Cows, Madder Government. The U.K. government goes crazy over mad cow disease. National Review Online. June 12, 2001.
Zero Good Sense. (Zero tolerance). Persecuting schoolchildren for playing with finger guns is mean-spirited. National Review Online. June 6, 2001. In italiano.
Defending Gun Shows. The groups attack gun shows are out to destroy the Second Amendment. Mar. 15, 2001. National Review Online.
Ripe for Genocide. Zimbabwe. National Review Online. Feb. 13, 2001.
Living in Fear. “Community” fear as a basis for gun restrictions. National Review Online. Jan. 17, 2001.
No Canada. Why America would follow Canada’s political lead is mind boggling. National Review Online. Dec. 20, 2000.
Solomon Says. The madness of civilian disarmament in the South Pacific. National Review Online. Nov. 27, 2000.
Jamaican War Zone. An island of intoxicative beauty? Try again, mon. National Review Online. Oct. 30, 2000.
Not-so Safe-Storage Laws. The only ones “safe” are the intruders. National Review Online. Oct. 18, 2000.
South African Stupidity. Disarming the citizenry is not the answer. National Review Online. Oct. 11, 2000.
Gunning for the Kiddies. What kind of a “climate” has taken hold of society? National Review Online. Sept. 22, 2000.
Violent Misinformation Campaign. Don’t look to the government and the media to explain drops in violent crime. National Review Online. Sept. 15, 2000.
Instant Check, Permanent Record. National Review Online. Aug. 10, 2000.
Civil Disobedience in Canada. National Review Online. Aug. 2, 2000.
Fear in Britain. They have no guns — so they have a lot of crime. National Review Online. July 18, 2000. This article was cited in a letter which 18 state Attorneys General wrote to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft commending his recognition of the Second Amendment as an individual right.
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