BELLEVUE, WA – Veteran Second Amendment legal scholar, author, attorney and gun rights authority David Hardy of Tucson, Ariz., has been inducted into the Second Amendment Hall of Fame by the Second Amendment Foundation.
In 1974, he was first to publish an article in the Chicago-Kent Law Review promoting recognition of the Second Amendment as protective of an individual right to keep and bear arms. It was considered an outlandish notion in those days, but now that interpretation is the law of the land, thanks to two Supreme Court rulings in 2008 and 2010.
Upon learning of his award, Hardy said he was deeply honoured, adding, “I don’t think the battle will ever end, but I think that the grounds of the battle are shifting decidedly in our favour.”
The 69-year-old Hardy worked for ten years in the office of Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Interior, primarily representing the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. He also served as associate editor of the Arizona Law Review and has handled cases up to the U.S. Supreme Court. He has authored seven books and 27 law review articles, one of which was cited by the Supreme Court and 11 of the 13 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals.
“Among gun rights activists and scholars, David Hardy is a living legend,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “We’ve been honoured to have him appear at several of our Gun Rights Policy Conferences, and it would be difficult to find anyone with his level of history and achievement in restoring the Second Amendment to its rightful place as a cornerstone of the Constitution.”
Hardy was born in Phoenix to an old-line Arizona family. His great-grandfather was Nat Hickman, who Hardy describes as “a gun-slinging outlaw who took the alias of Charles W. Hardy when he fled to the Arizona Territory in 1872. He married a Native American woman and was subsequently elected the first Justice of the Peace of Cave Creek.
Today, Hardy manages the blog ArmsAndTheLaw.com and operates the publication website hardybooks.net.
