Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee, is the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month for March.
In nominating Reynolds for the Award, John M. Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, noted that, “it is of great significance when a scholar of distinction, such as Glenn, is able also to communicate his learned defense of the right to keep and bear arms in a down to earth manner through more popular writing. This, however, is what this professor has done, most recently in a column which appeared in mid-January in The New York Times. We commend him for his efforts, as well as for his evident success in being able to promulgate his defense of American gun rights. He certainly is most worthy of receiving the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for March.”
In his Times column, “A Rifle in Every Pot,” Professor Reynolds reflected on community ordinances, such as those in Kennesaw, Georgia and, most recently, in Greenleaf, Idaho.
He pointed out, for instance, that “Greenleaf is following in the footsteps of Kennesaw, which in 1982 passed a mandatory gun ownership law in response to a handgun ban passed in Morton Grove, Illinois. Kennesaw’s crime dropped sharply, while Morton Grove’s did not.
“To some degree, this is rational. Criminals, unsurprisingly, would rather break into a house where they aren’t at risk of being shot. As David Kopel noted in a 2001 article in The Arizona Law Review, burglars report that they try to avoid homes where armed residents are likely to be present. We see this phenomenon internationally, too, with the United States having a lower proportion of ‘hot’ burglaries – break-ins where the burglars know the home to be occupied – than countries with restrictive gun laws.”
Reynolds wrote also that, “likewise, in the event of disasters that leave law enforcement overwhelmed, armed citizens can play an important role in stanching crime. Armed neighborhood watches deterred looting in parts of Houston and New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”
Experts, Reynolds admitted, “don’t think the Kennesaw ordinance, which has never actually been enforced, did much to change gun ownership rates among Kennesaw residents. And, given that Greenleaf’s mayor has estimated that 80 percent of the town’s residents already own guns, the new ordinance can’t make that much of a difference. But criminals are likely to suspect that towns with laws like these on the books will be unsympathetic to malefactors in general, and to conclude that they will do better elsewhere.
“To the extent that’s true, we’re likely to see other communities adopting similar laws so that criminals won’t see them as attractive alternatives. The result may be a different kind of ‘gun control.’”
In addition to his professorial responsibilities, Glenn is the author of the blog Instapundit and of An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology are Empowering Ordinary People to Take on Big Government, Big Media and Other Goliaths.
Reynolds received his Bachelor of Arts in 1982 from the University of Tennessee and his Juris Doctor in 1985 from Yale University. In his instructional career, he specializes in Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Space Law and Internet Law, and the interconnection between Law, Science and Technology.
Considered one of the most prolific scholars on the University of Tennessee faculty, Professor Reynolds’ work has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Wisconsin Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, Law and Policy in International Business, Jurimetrics, and the High Technology Law Journal.
He also has written in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. He is a contributing editor to the TechCentralStation.com website and writes a regular column for the FoxNews.com website.
Reynolds has testified before congressional committees on space law, international trade, and domestic terrorism. He has been executive chairman of the National Space Society and a member of the White House Advisory Panel on Space Policy.
A member of the University of Tennessee faculty since 1989, Professor Reynolds received the Harold C. Warner Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Award in 1991, and the W. Allen Separk Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Award in 1998.
He produces, writes for, or performs with a number of bands, including The Nebraska Guitar Militia.