We filed suit against the unconstitutional gun laws today.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

A couple of hours ago the lobby of our Independence Institute building, affectionately known as the Freedom Embassy, was overflowing with microphones, cameras, and news reporters for the announcement that our lawsuit has been filed against the unconstitutional new gun bills. Quite literally, reporters were spilling out of our front door.

Sheriffs, representing the 54 elected sheriffs across Colorado, disabled gun owners, women for concealed carry, and the Colorado Farm Bureau all spoke on why they are plaintiffs in this landmark case.

You can see the press conference in its entirety below. Please take at least a few minutes to witness the passion behind our plaintiffs and listen to their reasons for challenging the State of Colorado. These are the people that make me so very proud to be a Coloradan. They are the spirit of Colorado.

We are honored and humbled to spearhead this effort to overturn these dangerous laws. Here is the full video of the press conference. Here is the official complaint.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone wrote a short essay about the right to keep and bear arms and its opposition in America? Perhaps something of similar length and persuasion as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” or the Federalist Papers?

Well, our resident Second Amendment scholar, historian, and law professor Dave Kopel did just that for Encounter Books. In his latest book appropriately titled, “The Truth About Gun Control,” Dave gives the reader a foundation for why the right to keep and bear arms is important, who fought this inherent right and why, and what’s at stake today from the likes of Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama. As Dave says, the book is meant to be read in one sitting. Or as I like to say, the book can be read to me in one sitting.

If you’d like to hear more about the book, check out this iVoices.org podcast. He and Justin go into more detail about the book and why it’s an important piece in today’s fight against the gun control machine.

If reading the book and listening to the podcast don’t entirely whet your appetite, I may have just the thing for you. On Tuesday, May 14th, we are holding a book signing and presentation with Dave here at the Freedom Embassy. Admission is FREE, but you must RSVP online or by phone at 303-279-6536. For more information, visit our Facebook page here.

The media correctly portrayed Wednesday’s Senate vote against broad background checks as an enormous defeat for the anti-gun movement, and for President Obama, as he put so much of his political capital into it. His decisive defeat significantly weakens him on every other issue.

What might not be as well known is that the Independence Institute was a key player in this success.

We were the only organization to put out a detailed explanation of how Senator Schumer’s background check bill would’ve turned almost every American gun owner into a felon, because it applies not only to gun sales, but also temporary transfers, like lending your shotgun to a friend or family member.

When the gun control lobby realized they couldn’t pass Schumer’s background check, they then proposed the Manchin-Toomey substitute. It was drafted secretly and hastily, and the plan was to rush it through the Senate. Our Second Amendment scholar, David Kopel, spent long & late nights writing articles on Volokh.com and National Review Online explaining how poorly written it was, making it full of unintended consequences. For example, it supposedly outlawed federal gun registration, but when you look carefully at the statutory language, it actually legalized one form of federal gun registration which is currently illegal.

Kopel’s work helped the Senate see that these bills, which were supposedly just about background checks on sales, were actually laden with many other anti gun provisions.

We were there from the very beginning of this fight. According to Senate aides, Kopel’s testimony before the Judicial Committee on January 30 was crucial in stopping a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons.” And from the very moment President Obama began using the horrible murders in Newtown as pretext to crack down on law abiding gun owners, Kopel was in the national media providing the facts and promoting genuine reforms which would actually help public safety.

Joe Biden lobbied hard here in Colorado to pass a litany of anti gun bills on the state level, which were intended to set the stage for a national ban. Kopel’s expert testimony in the state legislature, along with our broad outreach in social media and on YouTube, helped lead to the defeat of two of the worst bills: the ban on licensed carry on college campuses and the bill allowing lawsuits against gun manufacturers. Our work also helped make the bills that did pass significantly less bad than they were to start with.

For the anti-gun movement, Colorado was supposed to be an easy victory leading them to victories elsewhere. Instead they paid a HUGE price for their limited victories in Colorado, and that price will escalate significantly as we provide pro bono representation to Colorado Sheriffs as we lead the legal fight to declare these bills unconstitutional.

Join us for a book signing with our Second Amendment scholar Dave Kopel on Tuesday, May 14th. He will be giving a presentation on his new book, “The Truth About Gun Control,” and signing copies following the Q and A. For more details and to RSVP, please go here.

We fight for Freedom with a long-term battle plan that works. These victories are even more proof. Thank you for being a part of it.

Independence Institute friend and long-time contributor Ari Armstrong shot this video of Constitution scholar Rob Natelson speaking in Grand Junction on gun rights, the Second Amendment, and Colorado’s new gun controls. We can’t thank Ari enough for shooting, editing, and posting the video.

Below you’ll find the whole speech, but before you watch the whole thing, check out this 4 minute segment where Rob makes a great analogy between gun controls and sex controls. It’s pure genius.

And here is the whole 34 minute speech.

As many of you have heard, we are mounting a legal challenge to the new gun controls signed into law yesterday. Our lawsuit will be based on the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, among other grounds. The lawsuit will be brought on behalf of a large coalition of local and national law enforcement, including many of the Sheriffs who opposed the bills, disability rights organizations, gun safety organizations, civil rights organizations, and others. As always, spearheading this effort is our Second Amendment Scholar Dave Kopel.

Many have called, emailed, and written us wondering how they can help with our legal campaign. This help is sorely needed. As you might imagine, we have a long and expensive legal battle ahead of us. Your contribution will help with these expenses.

The easiest way to make a contribution directly to this effort is by clicking on this link to donate: https://secure.i2i.org/2al.php

However, if you prefer to send a check, you may mail it to:

Independence Institute
727 E. 16th Avenue
Denver, CO 80203

In the memo line, simply put SAP lawsuit, so we apply your gift to the our efforts to fight these over-reaching gun laws.

Again, thank you for your support!

In case you missed our annual Founders’ Night dinner last Thursday, here is the keynote address given by world famous George Mason economist Walter Williams.

I’m sure like me, you feel like there is just not enough Dave Kopel in the world to satiate your unquenchable thirst for the Second Amendment, law, history, and everything else Dave knows everything about. We’ll never get enough Kopel, but we can get close. I’ve been visiting Dave’s YouTube channel over the past few weeks and it’s a great way to keep up with everything he’s doing on air. It’s updated regularly so make sure you subscribe to it.

Below you’ll find the latest Dave video – a debate on international gun control held yesterday at DU. It’s basically an hour of Dave dropping knowledge on the panel and the room. Truly remarkable.

Our resident genius and Second Amendment scholar Dave Kopel was in Washington DC this morning to testify on gun violence, public safety, and the right to arms. He was on a panel of five experts who each gave a 5 minute prepared statement and then fielded questions from the US Senate Judiciary Committee.

Here is a PDF of Kopel’s prepared remarks.

Here is the video of Kopel’s testimony and all the questions he fielded from the Senators.

Our Second Amendment expert, Dave Kopel, has never been in more demand than he is right now. As the well-fueled hysteria against the Bill of Rights is at full throttle, voices of reason are being overrun. We are certain reason can prevail when we cut through the emotion of panic that the gun-grabbers feed on. Dave is the antidote to that panic. I invite you to see him in action.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hear from five witnesses who are authorities on firearms, gun violence, and public safety. Dave will be one of the five testifying in Washington DC tomorrow morning at 8am MST.

Along with reading a prepared statement, witnesses will be fielding Q and A from the committee. Gun owners are lucky to have Dave defending their Second Amendment rights in our nation’s capitol. If anyone can make headway with DC bureaucrats, it’s Dave.

You can watch Dave on TV via CNN and via the Internet on C-SPAN this Wednesday morning at 8am.

You can also arm yourself with the truth on this hot issue by visiting his web page DaveKopel.com

Mark your calendar right now for the biggest party of the year. And it’s coming up fast. Our 28th Annual Founders’ Night Dinner will be held March 7th at Infinity Park in Glendale.

Every year we honor one person who has gone above and beyond to fight for Liberty and the future of Colorado with our David S. D’Evelyn Award. Past recipients include Mike Rosen, Jake Jabs, Bruce Benson, William Coors, Hank Brown and many more.

This year we are thrilled to recognize with this award a true Independence Institute original – one of our former Senior Fellows and former Board Trustee. This person was a lawyer for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a free market public interest legal foundation dedicated to individual liberty and property rights. This person also served as Attorney General for the State of Colorado and later as the Secretary of the Interior of the United States of America.

Haven’t guessed who it is yet? Here’s a hint – liberal actor/activist Robert Redford was so enamored with this person that in a public letter to her, he said, “Sadly, since assuming the Interior Secretary post, you have compiled an abysmal record of capitulating to big businesses at the expense of the nation’s public health, public lands and wildlife.” How can you not love her?

Yes that’s right: Liberty’s Warrior, the Honorable Gale Norton will receive our D’Evelyn award.

And now for the main act…

America is on the edge – the edge of fiscal ruin by governmental spending, the edge of moral ruin by mortgaging our children’s future, the edge of Constitution ruin by an unchecked federal government.

Perhaps like you, we at Independence find ourselves wondering – is it too late?

We wanted to bring that question to someone qualified enough to actually answer that question. After a great deal of in-house argument as to who was best to understand and explain the role of government in a free society, we all found ourselves drawn to the same name.

I am more than excited to announce our keynote speaker on March 7th is the great economist and communicator, Walter Williams.

Following in the trail blazed by Fredrick Hayek and Milton Friedman, Walter Williams is the nation’s finest, clear-thinking economist. And his thinking has brought him to what he told me was his solution for the nation’s crisis – Obey the Constitution.

Dr. Williams is Chairman of the Economics Department for George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the author of over 150 publications which have appeared in scholarly journals such as Economic Inquiry, American Economic Review, Georgia Law Review, Journal of Labor Economics, Social Science Quarterly, and Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy and popular publications such as Newsweek, Ideas on Liberty, National Review, Reader’s Digest, Cato Journal, and Policy Review. He has authored ten books including Do the Right Thing: The People’s Economist Speaks, More Liberty Means Less Government, Liberty vs. the Tyranny of Socialism, Up From The Projects: An Autobiography, and Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed On Discrimination?

He has made scores of radio and television appearances which include Nightline, Firing Line, Face the Nation, Milton Friedman’s Free To Choose, Crossfire, MacNeil/Lehrer, Wall Street Week and was a regular commentator for Nightly Business Report. He is also an occasional substitute host for the Rush Limbaugh Show. In addition Dr. Williams writes a nationally syndicated weekly column that is carried by approximately 140 newspapers and several web sites.

Seats for this event will be going quickly, very quickly. If you wish to join us, you have the opportunity to purchase tickets online here, or you can email Mary MacFarlane at Mary@i2i.org.

Don’t be the person who someday says, “Oh, I wish I had been there!”