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Law, Policy, and Guns

Through a series of public events, a new course offering, cutting-edge scholarship, and a special issue of The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, the Solomon Center has placed a special focus on addressing the epidemic of gun violence in America.

 

Gun Violence in America: An Interdisciplinary Examination

Every year, nearly 40,000 Americans die from gun violence, an average of 100 people per day. Another 73,000 people experience firearm injuries — some so severe they are life altering, according to federal statistics. The United States leads the developed world in rates of gun violence, and the toll of this epidemic affects everyone across the country. To examine the deleterious effects of this growing crisis, Yale Law School faculty and students teamed up with experts across Yale University to publish a groundbreaking volume devoted to the gun violence epidemic in the Winter 2020 issue of The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME). The Journal issue marked the culmination of a special course taught at Yale Law School in the spring of 2020 titled “The Law, Policy, and Guns," and features 26 articles from a team of students, professors, scholars, physicians, advocates and other experts from across the country seeking to address the epidemic through interdisciplinary conversation and research. The authors tackled the problem from four angles — criminal justice, medicine and public health, the roles of regulation and litigation, and data and empirics.

The articles published in Gun Violence in America: An Interdisciplinary Examination (2020) include:

Public Events:

In addition to its scholarly projects, the Solomon Center has welcomed a variety of guest speakers for large public lectures and panels as well as more intimate student discussions:

  • November 7, 2024 — "History and Tradition’ in Firearm Litigation: The Role of Historians as Amici," a panel discussion with Yale Law School Professor Reva Siegel, Giffords Law Center Litigation Director Esther Sanchez-Gomez, Yale School of Public Health Dean Megan L. Ranney, Wesleyan Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society Jennifer Tucker, Everytown Law Senior Director Janet Carter, and Fordham Professor Saul Cornell.
  • September 12, 2023 — "Gun Violence, Domestic Violence, and the Supreme Court: Twin Threats before the Court in United States v. Rahimi," a panel discussion featuring ASU Professor and Research Society for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms board member Jesenia Pizarro, Everytown Law Executive Director Eric Tirschwell, Yale School of Public Health Dean Megan L. Ranney, and Boston University Assistant Professor Michael Ulrich.
  • October 12, 2022 — "Public Health and Racial Justice Approaches to Gun Violence," a panel discussion featuring Public Defender Aimee Carlisle, Advancement Project Fellow TJ Grayson '21, renown violence intervention expert Marcus McAllister, and University of Maryland Professor Dr. Joseph Richardson, Jr.
  • October 3, 2022 — "Unpacking Bruen: What's Next for Regulating Guns in the Public Sphere?" A panel discussion featuring Penn Carey Law School Professor Dana Bazelon, New York State Sentator Zellnor Y. Myrie, Duke Law School Professor Joseph Blocher '06, and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin.
  • November 2, 2021 — "Bruen and a Progressive Approach to the Second Amendment," a panel discussion with Duke Law School Professor Joseph Blocher '06, March For Our Lives national field strategist Matt Post, and Yale Law School Professor Reva Siegel.
  • December 1, 2020 — "Firearms Litigation: Liability, Regulation, and the Constitution," a symposium co-sponsored with the NYU Center on Civil Justice and the Duke Center for Firearms Law, featuring expert panels on liability litigation, constitutional litigation, and the future of affirmative and defensive litigation strategies.
  • February 20, 2020 — "Legislators Against Gun Violence," a panel discussion with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal '73, Connecticut State Senator Gary Winfield, and Connecticut State Representative Steven Stafstrom on attempting and achieving gun reform at the federal and state levels.
  • February 5, 2020 — “Fighting Gun Violence in Court,” a panel discussion featuring Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Chief Counsel Jonathan Lowy, Giffords Law Center Chief Counsel and Policy Director Adam Skaggs, and Koskoff, Koskoff, and Beider attorney Joshua Koskoff.
  • January 29, 2020 — Student Discussion with Chelsea Parsons and Robyn Thomas, a small group discussion with Chelsea Parsons, Vice President of Gun Violence Prevention at the Center for American Progress, and Robyn Thomas, Executive Director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, about their careers as advocates against gun violence and their work on at state-level gun regulation.
  • January 21, 2020 — "The Use and Abuse of History in Second Amendment Cases," (event co-sponsor, event host Yale American Constitution Society), a panel discussion with Fordham Professor Saul Cornell, Wesleyan Professor Jennifer Tucker, and Everytown for Gun Safety Senior Counsel and Deputy Director Mark Frassetto.
  • September 6, 2018 — "Fighting for Gun Reform, Marching for Our Lives," a conversation with March for Our Lives student activists and U.S. Senator Chris Murphy.