The Great Joanne Eisen
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). Rebutt
Article from Reason.com
The Reason Magazine website is a go-to destination for libertarians seeking cogent analysis, investigative reporting, and thought-provoking commentary. Championing the principles of individual freedom, limited government, and free markets, the site offers a diverse range of articles, videos, and podcasts that challenge conventional wisdom and advocate for libertarian solutions. Whether you’re interested in politics, culture, or technology, Reason provides a unique lens that prioritizes liberty and rational discourse. It’s an essential resource for those who value critical thinking and nuanced debate in the pursuit of a freer society.
