Event Summary
In the biggest decision in decades on whether the Constitution's Second Amendment creates a personal right to keep and bear arms, a District of Columbia federal appeals court recently struck down the District's ban against having a pistol or an operational rifle, even at home for self-defense. If the district seeks Supreme Court review, it could lead to the most important gun control decision in history. Meanwhile, the mass murder at Virginia Tech University stoked the perennially simmering debate whether stronger gun controls could prevent such horrors—or make them more likely.
Judicial Issues Forum
Event Information
When
Monday, June 11, 2007
10:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Where
Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC
Map
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On June 11, the Brookings Institution continued its Judicial Issues Forum series with a discussion of the practical and constitutional arguments for and against various forms of gun control. Panelists included Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center; Randy Barnett, Carmack Waterhouse professor of legal theory at the Georgetown University Law Center; Jens Ludwig, professor of public policy at Georgetown University and nonresident senior fellow at Brookings; and Benjamin Wittes, guest scholar at Brookings.
Stuart Taylor, Jr., a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and a writer for National Journal and Newsweek, moderated the panel.
Participants
Moderator
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Columnist, National Journal; Contributor, Newsweek
Panelists
Fellow and Research Director in Public Law, Governance Studies
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
Josh Sugarmann
Executive Director,
Violence Policy Center
Randy Barnett
Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory,
Georgetown University Law Center