Senate Judiciary Committee Hears from Cato on Gun Policy
Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights — the same one where I testified regarding campaign finance post‐Citizens United last summer — held a hearing, titled “Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence: Protecting Our Communities While Respecting the Second Amendment.” In the lead‐up to the hearing, the subcommittee’s new ranking member, Sen. Ted Cruz (R‑TX), solicited written testimony from Cato on the subject. He got it in spades. Here are the Cato‐affiliated scholars who submitted materials:
- Associate policy analyst David Kopel provided an excellent summary of his decades of research on firearms law and policy.
- Senior fellow Randy Barnett outlined the constitutional considerations that must attend any discussion of gun regulation.
- Chairman Bob Levy attached a short cover letter to his timely National Law Journal article that critiques the current state of play.
- I sent in an essay about the right to keep and bear arms generally that incorporates two blogposts and five op‐eds by Kopel, Levy, Trevor Burrus, and myself.
If anyone else on Capitol Hill needs a full‐court press on an issue ahead of a hearing, you know where to find Cato.
