Don Kates – A Giant Among Second Amendment Activist Has Died

USA –  -(Ammoland.com)- Don Kates was an American lawyer and research fellow with The Independent Institute in Oakland, California and one of the first legal scholars to focused on the Second Amendment and promoting gun rights. Don passed away Tuesday, November 1st 2016.

Attorney Don Kilmer reported: “It saddens me to bear bad news, but as some of you may already know, Don Kates passed away on Tuesday, November 1, 2016.”

“While Don had a long struggle with his health issues, he bore it all with great dignity. He was given the highest quality care and was comforted throughout by his wife and close friends. A more formal announcement and tribute may be planned for later, but the family wanted to inform his friends in the Second Amendment and Academic Communities now.”

“There will be a small service attended by family and friends in Washington state on Saturday, November 5, 2016. We regret the short notice at this point but plans were in flux and just finalized late yesterday.”

Eugene Volokh wrote : “Don Kates, the father of the modern Second Amendment revival, has died”

“I just learned that Don Kates, the father of the modern Second Amendment revival, died Tuesday. Don wrote “Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment,” 82 Mich. L. Rev. 204 (1983), the first modern article in a major law review arguing for the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment, and since then he wrote or co-wrote over 15 more law review articles, as well as writing, co-writing or editing four books.”

“His work has been heavily cited both by courts and by scholars — and he did this while a lawyer in private practice (with occasional time as a think-tank researcher), rather than a law professor. Though he made his greatest mark on gun law and policy, Don started his career as a lawyer doing legal aid for the poor, chiefly in the area of civil rights and police misconduct. (He worked with noted radical lawyer William Kunstler.)”

“Don was also a funny and warm person, whom it was always a pleasure to be around. He will be long missed, and long remembered.”

Don authored many must read-books on the Second Amendment and gun rights including books 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).

In May of 2014 on an AmmoLand News article titled “Don Kates – Second Amendment Centerpost” Chuck D. Michel wrote:

“More than most people, Kates efforts were responsible for the reconfirmation of that individual right [Second Amendment] by the United States Supreme Court.”

“Kates is the intersection of a stereotypical college professor and a rabid activist (which he might deny). Yet his intelligent perspective on the relationship between humans and government shows that the two are not mutually exclusive and that, in the area of arms, they are positively united.”

A visitation for close friends and relatives in Washington state on Saturday, November 5, 2016. The information is:

Northwood Park Cemetery
16407 NE 15th Ave, Ridgefield, WA 98642
Visitation: Noon to 3

“Rest in Peace, Don you will be very missed, we were all made better by your efforts.” ~ AmmoLand Editor Fredy Riehl

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