Don Kates (???-2016)

was an American lawyer and research fellow with The Independent Institute in Oakland, California who focused on promoting gun rights. His scholarship and litigation played important parts in the modern renaissance of the Second Amendment. Additionally, Kates played a major role in bringing together scholars and opinion leaders. Along with Stephen Halbrook, Kates deserved the primary credit for making the Second Amendment scholarship an important topic of modern scholarly interest. His books include Armed: New Perspectives On Gun Control, Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, Firearms and Violence: Issues of Public Policy, and The Great American Gun Debate: Essays on Firearms and Violence (with Gary Kleck). As a civil liberties lawyer he has been retained by the National Rifle Association to represent gun owners attacking the constitutionality of certain firearms laws. The Washington Post described Kates as the "Johnnie Cochran" of the pro-gun lobby, noting his polemical attacks on public-health research on firearms injuries and writing that Kates "has muddied the waters of truth so thoroughly that wading into them is a daunting task." Kates also wrote extensively on criminological issues related to firearms. Among his most influential policy articles is “Guns and Public Health: Epidemic of Violence or Pandemic of Propaganda?” which appeared in a symposium issue of the Tennessee Law Review in 1994. His 1983 article in the Michigan Law Review was the first time that a top-10 law journal published a detailed historical analysis of the original meaning of the Second Amendment.

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