5 Experts Available for Timely Analysis on SCOTUS Gun Rights Case

Director of Membership Engagement

The Supreme Court is preparing to make some deeply impactful decisions during this session. One of the cases the Court will be hearing arguments on next week is New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc v. Bruen, which will determine whether rights to carry firearms in public will be expanded. For reporters covering this case and its implications, the following experts are available to provide commentary and analysis.

Duke University

Blocher co-directs the Center for Firearms Law. He teaches and writes about constitutional law, especially the First and Second Amendments, and has published articles on those and other topics in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law ReviewDuke Law Journal, Yale Journal of International Law, and other leading journals. He is co-author of Free Speech Beyond Words (NYU Press, 2017) and The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

University of Connecticut
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Raissian is the Director of ARMS, which is UConn's Center for Gun Injury Prevention, and she is also the co-director of UConn’s Gun Violence Prevention – Research Interest Group (GVP-RIG). Her gun injury prevention research focuses on how policy and non-policy interventions can make families and communities safer. 

Rutgers University-Camden
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Semenza's research focuses on gun violence, victimization, and the connections between criminal justice exposure and health. Overarching themes in Semenza's writings include the public health consequences of the criminal justice system, firearm availability, racial disparities in violence exposure and health, and the implications of firearm policy.

 

Quote: “Gun violence – both fatal and nonfatal – is a national public health crisis in the United States. There is a growing push to further limit the patchwork of regulations we have to prevent firearm injuries in many states. This is not an issue of politics – it is an issue of public safety. We are moving in the wrong direction and this Supreme Court case has significant implications for the right of every American to feel safe and protected in their communities.”

College of William and Mary School of Law
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Spitzer is the author of six books on gun policy, including The Politics of Gun Control (Routledge, 1995) and Guns across America (Oxford University Press, 2017). His new book on current gun issues is due out next year (titled The Gun Dilemma). 

 

Quote: "If one thing is clear about the gun case from New York currently before the court, it is that they did not agree to hear it to uphold the law. In my view they will strike at it in part or whole.”

Maynooth University
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Wozniak researches the politics of crime and criminal justice with a particular focus on public opinion.He teaches classes about the criminal justice system, mass incarceration, social policy, and social science research methods.

 

Quote: "Evidence suggests that rates of violence are higher in states with more permissive gun carry laws.  Surveys show that only a minority of Americans approve of people widely carrying guns in public spaces.  If SCOTUS strikes down concealed carry permits, they will favor gun owners over the majority of Americans."