David T. Hardy is a Tucson, AZ, attorney specializing in firearm-related cases and Second Amendment scholarship. He has published four books and 19 law review articles. His 1974 article, “Of Arms and the Law,” was one of the earliest law review articles to argue for an individual rights view of the Second Amendment, His 1987 article, “The Firearms Owners’ Protection Act” has been cited as authority by the U.S. Supreme Court and 10 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. In 2006 he released the documentary film “In Search of the Second Amendment,” which took Second Place at the Skyfest Movie Festival and was nominated for the ABA Silver Gavel Award for legal education. (www.secondamendmentdocumentary.com). He also runs the gun law blog “Of Arms and the Law,” www.armsandthelaw.com.

As a law student, Mr. Hardy served as an editor of the Arizona Law Review, and was on the team which won regional moot court and competed at nationals. He received the ABA’s Lewis Powell award for appellate advocacy, and won the statewide American Association of Trial Lawyers’ competition in mock jury argument.

In the early 1980s he played a key role in arranging Congressional hearings into abuses of firearms owners, and then in drafting and negotiating the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act. He recently coauthored amicus briefs both in D.C. v. Heller and in McDonald v. Chicago, and was commended by the NRA Board of Directors for his work on Heller. From 1982 to 1992 he served as an attorney in Interior Department headquarters, handling matters relating to fish, wildlife, and hunting programs. Since 1997 he has been president of Tucson Rod and Gun Club.

In 2000, Mr. Hardy played a key role in reopening investigation of the Waco tragedy, after his Freedom of Information Act suits led to the admission that previously undisclosed evidence existed, including photographs, audio, and infrared tapes, and a Federal court denounced the agencies for “stonewalling.”

Mr. Hardy has appeared on ABC Nightline, CNN, The O’Reilly Factor, Court TV, Voice of America shortwave, Scarborough Country, and over a hundred radio programs.

Publications

Books

MICHAEL MOORE IS A BIG FAT STUPID WHITE MAN (HarperCollins 2004) Six weeks on N.Y. Times bestseller list, translated into Japanese and Czech.

THIS IS NOT AN ASSAULT: PENETRATING THE WEB OF OFFICIAL LIES REGARDING THE WACO INCIDENT (2001).

ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT (1986).

THE COMPLETE SHORTWAVE LISTENERS’ HANDBOOK (3d ed. 1986).

Legal Periodicals

Originalism, Its Tools, and Some Caveats, __ AKRON L. REV. STRICT SCRUTINY __ (forthcoming, 2009).

Original Popular Understanding of the 14th Amendment as Reflected in the Print Media of 1866-68, 30 WHITTIER L. REV. 695 (2009).

The Lecture Notes of St. George Tucker: A Framing Era View of the Bill of Rights, 103 NORTHWESTERN U. L. REV. 1527 (2009).

Standing to Sue in the Absence of Prosecution: Can a Case Be Too Controversial for “Case or Controversy”?, 29 THOMAS JEFFERSON L. REV. 53 (2008).

A Well Regulated Militia, 15 WM. & MARY BILL OF RIGHTS JOURNAL 1237 (2007).

The Firearm Owners' Protection Act, 17 CUMB. L. REV. 585 (1987). Cited in a Supreme Court dissent and by ten U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals:

    • Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 610, 626 n.4 (1994) (Stevens, J., dissenting);

    • U. S. v. Andrade, 135 F3d. 104, 109 n. 3 (1st Cir. 1998);

    • U.S. v. Hayden, 64 F.3d 126, 129 (3d Cir. 1995); • U.S. v. Langley, 62 F.3d 602 (4th Cir. 1995) (en banc);

    • United States v. Golding, 332 F.3d 838 (5th Cir. 2003) • U.S. v. Kirk, 70 F.3d 791, 798 n.1 (5th Cir. 1995), en banc, 105 F.3d 997, 1006-07 (1997);

    • U.S. v. McGill, 74 F.3d 64, 67 (5th Cir. 1996); • U.S. v. Knutson, 113 F.3d 27, 30 (5th Cir. 1997):

    • U.S. v. Rodriguez, 132 F.2d 208,211 (5th Cir. 1997);

    • U. S. v. Cassidy, 899 F.2d 543, 546 n.8 (6th Cir. 1990);

    • U.S. v. Choice, 201 F.3d 837, 841 n. 5 (6th Cir. 2000);

    • U.S. v. Kenney, 91 F.3d 884, 886 (7th Cir. 1996);

    • U.S. v. Farrell, 69 F.3d 891, 893 (8th Cir. 1995);

    • U.S. v. Sherbondy, 865 F.2d 996, 1002 (9th Cir. 1988);

    • U.S. v. Marchant, 55 F.3d 509, 514 (10th Cir. 1995);

    • U.S. v. Wiles, 58 F.3d 1518, 1519 (10th Cir. 1995);

    • U.S. v. Haney, 264 F.3d 1161, 1169 (10th Cir. 2001);

    • Lomont v. O'Neill, 285 F.3d 9 (D.C.Cir. 2002);

    • U.S. v. Otiaba, 862 F. Supp. 251, 253-54 (D.N.D. 1994) (declining to follow 2d Circuit, since “that court did not have available to it Hardy’s analysis....”).

    • In re Two Seized Firearms, 127 N.J. 84, 602 A.2d 728, 731 (1992).

The Second Amendment and the Historiography of the Bill of Rights, 4 J. OF LAW & POLITICS 1 (1987).

Armed Citizens and Citizen Armies: Origins of the Second Amendment, 9 HARV. J. OF L. & PUB. POLICY 559 (1986). Cited in LAURENCE TRIBE, AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 897 n. 211 (3d Ed. 2000).

Fields & Hardy, The Militia and the Constitution, 136 MILITARY L. REV. 1 (1992).

Product Liability and Weapons Manufacture, 10 J. OF PRODUCTS LIABILITY 61 (1987).

Fields & Hardy, The Third Amendment and the Issue of the Maintenance of Standing Armies:, 35 Amer. J. OF LEGAL HISTORY 393 (1991).

Strict Liability and the Manufacture of Weapons, 20 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 541 (1984).

Legal Restriction of Firearm Ownership as an Answer to Violent Crime; What was the Question?, 6 HAMLINE L. REV. 391 (1983).

Harris v. McRae--The Clash of a Nonenumerated Right with Legislative Control of the Purse, 31 CASE-WESTERN RES. UNIV. L. REV. 465 (1981).

Firearms Ownership and Regulation, 20 WM & MARY L. REV. 235 (1978).

Privacy and Public Funding: Maher v. Roe as the Interaction of Roe v. Wade and Dandridge v. Williams, 18 ARIZ. L. REV. 903 (1977). Cited in:

   • D.R. v. Mitchell, 456 F. Supp. 609, 614, 615, 622 (D. Utah 1978);

   • Women's Health Services v. Maher, 482 F. Supp. 725, 735 (D. Conn. 1980).

Hardy & Stompoly, Of Arms and the Law, 51 CHI-KENT L REV. 62 (1974).

Note, Informants' Statements as a Basis for Stop and Frisk, 15 ARIZ. L. REV. 677 (1973).