The recent Second Amendment symposium at the George Mason University School of Law brought scholars and activists on both sides of the gun debate together to talk about what will happen to gun rights in the next few years. The consensus was that while no one knows exactly what will happen, it may well be historic.
On Oct. 17, the Law School hosted the Annual Symposium of the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal, entitled “The Second Amendment and Twenty-First Century Jurisprudence.” I spoke along with a number of other well-known figures in the gun debate, both pro-gun and anti-gun. (By way of full disclosure, I should mention that I am on the board of advisers of the law school.)
There were three panels, each covering a different topic. One panel discussed whether the Second Amendment guarantees to private citizens like you and me the right to own and possess firearms – the collective vs. individual rights debate. The issue was discussed in the context of the widespread gun confiscation by the city of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Another panel focused on government prohibition of firearm possession on public property. A third panel examined the D.C. gun ban case that is being offered to the Supreme Court, District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the District’s 30-year-old prohibition against having a handgun in your home for self-defense is being challenged.
The panels were hard-hitting debates, discussing these important issues openly and honestly. And in January, the GMU Civil Rights Law Journal will be publishing research articles written by many of the speakers.
The keynote speech was given by a major player in conservative legal circles and a leading figure in the fight to get good judges on the Supreme Court and federal bench: former Rep. David McIntosh. Congressman McIntosh has been an adviser to President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Ed Meese, and is also the co-chairman of The Federalist Society. He’s the sort of leader WorldNetDaily readers should be glad is on the front lines in D.C.; issues ranging from homeschooling to religious liberty to gun rights are all better off because of his work.
The law students who organized the symposium did a fine job of having evenly balanced panels, which allowed both sides to make their best arguments. Conservatives don’t ask for special treatment; they just ask for a level playing field knowing that their views will prevail in a fair fight.
The fact that this symposium happened at a major law school is an encouraging sign. When I went to Harvard Law School in the 1970s, it was extremely liberal. In the years since then, it appears that at many schools things have moved even further to the left. Conservative faculty members are rarely hired and often denied tenure, and each academic forum becomes one where views on the left are showcased, while no one from the right is invited to present opposing views.
For years, pro-gun advocates were denied a platform to explain the simple truth that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. George Mason’s willingness to give both sides of the public debate a free and fair hearing is refreshing.
The faculty at the law school is evenly split between liberals and conservatives, all of whom are well-credentialed experts who can present both sides of the issues to law students. More than allowing that view of the Second Amendment to be explained, one of the top Second Amendment scholars in America, Dr. Nelson Lund, is a professor at George Mason. Dr. Lund’s research has been essential in forcing academic institutions to accept the fact that the Second Amendment protects the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.
It’s no coincidence that George Mason is both one of the few law schools to evenly balance conservative and liberal thought and also the youngest top-tier law school in America. Half of America is conservative. Many of the brightest legal minds in America want to teach in an environment that welcomes all perspectives and allows ideas to stand or fall on their merits. And many of the brightest young conservatives in America want to attend a law school that will respect them and expose them to both sides of the debate.
That George Mason would hold a symposium on this topic shows that the legal community understands that the Heller case could be a watershed for gun rights in America. We’ll all find out soon enough. And events like this symposium lay the groundwork for the research that will help win these cases in court.
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