S. Social and Legal Regulation of Firearms

This offering meets 2 hours per week, but is worth 3 points of credit. The additional point of credit reflects the instructor's certification that the course assignments require student engagement and responsibilities beyond that found in a two hour lecture course.

Firearms are an enduring part of American history and culture. Firearms also are an historically contentious domain of constitutional law and jurisprudence, legal and social regulation, and public health and criminal justice policy. Litigation on both access to firearms and liability of the industry and private citizens for deaths caused by firearms has occupied a highly contentious space in contemporary legal culture and caselaw. Firearms are the cause of two thirds of all homicides since 1976, and more than half of all suicides, raising acute concerns about public safety and mental health. Shootings with multiple victims have become an urgent public policy concern with implications for significant changes in the regulatory landscape both in state and federal law. The regulatory design for firearms is a complex set of rules that span concerns span criminal justice, mental health, interstate commerce, privacy, product liability, and financial regulation. In this course, we examine current designs for firearm regulation and control. Topics include the history and culture of firearms in the U.S., constitutional regulation of firearms, the firearms industry, marketing and distribution, illegal firearms markets, licensing and controls over access, litigation, firearm injury and mortality, defensive firearm uses, and scientific advances in the detection and control of firearms.