1947
- author and lawyer
- 1969 B.S. Business Florida State University
- 1972 PhD in philosophy
- 1978 attorney specializing in civil litigation and criminal defense
- published several books and dozens of articles on:
– the history of the right to bear arms
– the historical background of the Second Amendment
– modern gun control, Nazi gun control policies during World War II
– Switzerland’s policy of armed neutrality during World War II - 1981 in the George Mason University Law Review
– the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to arms
– the 14th Amendment intended to make that 2nd Amendment enforceable against the states - 1984 That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right
- 1984 Defectless Firearms Litigation
- 1986 What the Framers Intended: A Linguistic Analysis of the Right to “Bear Arms“
- 1989 A Right to Bear Arms: State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees
- 1991 The Right of the People or the Power of the State: Bearing Arms, Arming Militias, and the Second Amendment
- 1994 NRA and Law Enforcement Opposition to the Brady Act: From Congress to the District Courts
- 1998 Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms, 1866-1876
- 2006 St. George Tucker’s Second Amendment: Deconstructing “The True Palladium of Liberty”
- 2008 The Founder’s Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms
- 2008 Arms in the Hands of Jews Are a Danger to Public Safety: Nazism, Firearm Registration, and the Night of the Broken Glass
- 2014 David & Goliath Award from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
About Stephen P. Halbrook
Stephen P. Halbrook is an attorney, legal historian and senior fellow at the Independent Institute whose scholarship and litigation have shaped modern understanding of the Second Amendment. He holds a Ph.D. in social philosophy from Florida State University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and he taught legal and political philosophy at George Mason University, Howard University and Tuskegee Institute before focusing on law practice. His 1984 book That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right was one of the early book-length works arguing that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, a view the Supreme Court adopted in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008.
Halbrook has prevailed in three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, most notably Printz v. United States, in which the Court held that the federal government could not compel local sheriffs to run background checks under the Brady Act. He has testified before House and Senate committees on firearms law, and his books range from the Founders’ views on arms to the Fourteenth Amendment and the disarmament of freedmen, Swiss armed neutrality in World War II, and Nazi gun control in Germany and occupied France. His Firearms Law Deskbook is a standard practitioner reference for federal and state firearms law.
Key Facts
- 1984: Publishes That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right.
- 1992: Wins United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Co. at the U.S. Supreme Court.
- 1997: Wins Printz v. United States, limiting federal power to commandeer local officials under the Brady Act.
- 2000: Wins Castillo v. United States at the U.S. Supreme Court.
- 2008: Publishes The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms.
- 2018: Publishes Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance.
Sources
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