This year’s Symposium was entitled “Guns Everywhere: Individual Rights and Communal Harms after NYSRPA v. Bruen” and was co-sponsored by Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the UCLA Criminal Justice Program. The Symposium brought together five panels of scholars, community activists, and leaders in the field to discuss a variety of issues surrounding the Second Amendment, gun violence, racial disparities in gun enforcement, and much more.

The featured panels and panelists with links to the individual panel recordings are listed below.

Playlist of all symposium recordings

 

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Day 1 - October 20, 2022

Panel 1: Non-Carceral Solutions to Gun Violence: A Focus on Community Violence Intervention

Watch recording

This panel will feature practitioners and researchers of community violence interruption programs who are fighting on the front lines to combat gun violence in the country’s most hard-hit communities. The panel will discuss non-carceral solutions to gun violence and how the law can better be used to serve communities and keep them safe. Panelists will discuss the promise and impediments of laws that currently exists, the legal obstacles to community-based violence interruption, and the ongoing and future legislative battles that will allow for an increase in both violence prevention and interruption.

Attending Speakers

• Claudia Bracho, Peace Fellow, Urban Peace Institute
• Talib Hudson, Director of Research and Innovation, National Network for Safer Communities

Moderator

• Paul Carrillo, Founder, Southern California Crossroads

Required Readings for CLE Credit

• Community-Based Violence Prevention: The Potential Mechanisms of Black Community Cohesion and Implications for Public Policy by Talib Hudson
• Addressing the Root Causes of Gun Violence with American Rescue Plan Funds: Lessons from State and Local Governments by the Brookings Institute
• Address Gun Violence by Going After Root Causes by Brennan Institute

 

Keynote Speaker Address: Eddie Bocanegra, Senior Advisor, Community Violence Intervention, U. S. Department of Justice.

Watch recording

 

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Day 2 - October 21, 2022

Panel 2: The History of the Second Amendment: How We Got to Bruen–and Where We Go from Here

Watch recording

This panel will provide an overview of the history of the Second Amendment and the doctrinal use of that history. Beginning with the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, and particularly in light of its recent opinion in NYSRPA v. Bruen, modern gun laws have been tested for constitutionality by their comparability to 18th- and 19th-century American laws. The panelists will discuss this standard and how it raises important questions such as: who passed these historical laws, and for whose benefit?

Attending Speakers

• Jake Charles, Professor, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law
• Saul Cornell, Professor, Guenther Chair in American History, Fordham University
• Danny Li, Attorney
• Eric Ruben, Assistant Professor, SMU Dedman School of Law

Moderator

• Esther Sanchez-Gomez, Litigation Director, Giffords Law Center

Required Readings for CLE Credit

• Second Amendment Animus by Jake Charles
• New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen
• HISTORY, TEXT, TRADITION, AND THE FUTURE OF SECOND AMENDMENT JURISPRUDENCE: LIMITS ON ARMED TRAVEL UNDER ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW, 1688–1868

 

Panel 3: Police Violence and Public Safety in a World of Concealed Carry

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This panel will discuss how to address public health and police violence concerns in a world where there is a fundamental right to carry a concealed weapon – particularly, in situations when police confront legally-armed people of color. It will also address Fourth Amendment jurisprudence and whether and how the increasing number of individuals carrying firearms may be used to justify more searches, seizures, and police violence, particularly towards Black Americans.

Attending Speakers

• Kiel Brennan-Marquez, Professor, UConn School of Law
• Guha Krishnamurthi, Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma College of Law 
• Julie Diaz Martinez, Check the Sheriff Coalition
• Peter Salib, Assistant Professor, University of Houston Law Center

Moderator

• Alicia Virani, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Director of the Criminal Justice Program, UCLA School of Law

Required Readings for CLE Credit

• Outsourced Law Enforcement by Kiel Brennan-Marquez
• Stop and Frisk in a Concealed Carry World, Shawn E. Fields

 

Panel 4: Different Enforcement and Disparate Impacts of Gun Laws

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In light of the arguments raised by public defenders as amici in Bruen, this panel will discuss racial disparities in the enforcement of gun laws, how this contributes to the inequities of mass incarceration, and the social science evidence demonstrating the disproportionately-high burden borne by children and communities of color as a result of gun violence. It will also explore what policies can help address this disproportionate gun violence without enhancing the burdens that mass incarceration imposes on the same communities.

Attending Speakers

• Melissa Barragan, Assistant Professor, Cal Poly Pomona
• Sarah Britto, Assistant Professor, Cal State Dominguez Hills
• David Olson, Professor, Loyola University Chicago
• Sharone Mitchell Jr., Chief Public Defender, Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender

Moderator

• Ingrid Eagly, Professor, UCLA School of Law

Required Readings for CLE Credit

• We are public defenders. New York’s gun laws eviscerate our clients’ Second Amendment rights.
• Melissa Barragan et al., Prohibited Possessors and the Law: How Inmates in Los Angeles Jails Understand Firearm and Ammunition Regulations
• Bronx Public Defender’s Amicus Brief in Bruen

 

Panel 5: Guns at Poll-Booths and Protests: the Chilling Effect on First Amendment Activities and Against Criminal Justice Reform

Watch recording

This panel will discuss how the presence of guns in public chills the exercise of First Amendment rights, particularly at polling sites and protests advocating for legal reforms. This panel may also examine how the increasing number of fringe groups illegally conspiring to use firearms to threaten, coerce, or kill public officials ­– including federal and state legislators –can undermine the channels through which reforms would ordinarily take place, affecting the likelihood of meaningful and much-needed change.

Attending Speakers

• Joseph Blocher, Professor, Duke Law
• Matt Fogelson, Staff Attorney, Advancement Project
• Kelly Sampson, Senior Counsel and Director of Racial Justice, Brady Campaign
• Reva Siegel, Professor, Yale Law School

Moderator

• Allison Anderman, Senior Counsel & Director of Local Policy, Giffords Law Center

Required Readings for CLE Credit

• The Second Amendment Has Become a Threat to the First
• Firearm Localism by Joseph Blocher
• Key Stats

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UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. Panels 1,2,3, and 5 are approved for 1.25 hours of general MCLE credit, and Panel 4 is approved for 1.25 of Recognition and Elimination of Bias credit. An individual can receive a maximum of 5 hours of general MCLE credit and 1.25 hours of Recognition and Elimination of Bias credit.