Wed Sep 11 23:26:12 UTC 2024: ## Gladwell’s Gun Control Narrative: A Revisionist History?
**David Kopel, a law professor and research director at the Independence Institute, criticizes Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revisionist History” podcast for misrepresenting historical facts in its coverage of gun control.**
Kopel points to Gladwell’s episode about Sir John Knight, an English man acquitted in 1686 for violating the Statute of Northampton, which restricted the carrying of arms. Gladwell claims that Knight’s case is a crucial precedent in American gun rights jurisprudence, and that it was widely known among American legal scholars, including George Wythe, the first American law professor.
Kopel refutes Gladwell’s claims, demonstrating that Knight’s case is not a central part of American gun control history, and that Wythe’s library, which Gladwell claims Kopel personally “combed through,” no longer exists.
He further criticizes Gladwell’s portrayal of the Supreme Court case *New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen*, arguing that the case does not hinge on Knight’s case, nor does it prove that English common law was hostile to gun ownership.
Kopel concludes that Gladwell’s story-telling style prioritizes dramatic narratives over factual accuracy, and that relying on his podcast for historical information is akin to taking Comedy Central as a source for current events.
First Piper 