The Deadly Intersection of White Supremacy and Firearms: Panel 3 and Closing Remarks

This panel brings together legal experts to discuss white supremacy and firearms within the context of the Constitution and its history. In the Supreme Court's recent Bruen decision, which dramatically expands Second Amendment rights, Justice Clarence Thomas directs our constitutional attention to the past and focuses on our history of white supremacy and oppression, and he claims that expanding gun rights undercuts white supremacy. That claim, however, understates the use of gun regulations to fight white supremacy; understates the use of guns to further white supremacy; and raises hard questions about what history the Court treats as binding and what it treats as cautionary. Ultimately, the Court's rhetoric and legal holdings threaten to privilege guns over community self-defense and the preservation of the public sphere.

Experts in this last panel will discuss how racial hierarchy affects discourses about the legitimacy of armed political violence, the deadly interplay of free speech and gun rights, recent events that have created the potential for widespread or political violence that could put at risk the future of the US as a free and democratic society.

Moderator: Tim Carey, JD, law and policy advisor, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions

Speakers:

Gregory P. Magarian, Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis

Darrell A.H. Miller, Melvin G. Shimm Professor of Law, Duke Law School

Reva Siegel, Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Joseph Blocher, Lanty L. Smith ’67 Professor of Law, Duke Law School