Federalism Under The Gun: Banning City Lawsuits, Federalizing Gun Crime
POLICY FORUMTuesday, July 30, 2002
12:00 p.m.
Featuring Andrew Hruska, U.S. Department of Justice; Todd Adkins, National Rifle Association; Gene Healy, Cato Institute; and Robert A. Levy, Cato Institute.
The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
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President Bush's key crime-fighting program, Project Safe Neighborhoods, puts flesh on the NRA motto "we don't need new gun laws, we need to enforce the gun laws on the books." But it does so by federalizing the prosecution of gun possession crimes ordinarily left to the states.
Meanwhile, gun rights supporters in Congress want to use federal power to reform state tort law. They're pushing legislation that would shield firearms manufacturers and sellers from ongoing municipal lawsuits over gun violence.
Are those initiatives authorized by the Commerce Clause? Will they help protect our Second Amendment rights? Or do they undermine the Tenth Amendment and the doctrine of federalism? Please join us for a vigorous debate on gun laws and the Constitution.