February 13, 2013 4:59PM 

# Senate Judiciary Committee Hears from Cato on Gun Policy 

By [Ilya Shapiro](https://www.cato.org/people/ilya-shapiro) 

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Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights — the same one where I [testified](https://www.cato.org/publications/congressional-testimony/fix-our-campaign-finance-system-liberalize-political-speech-rather-restricting-it) regarding campaign finance post-*Citizens United* last summer — held [a hearing](http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=eed1f8b2e83fd7365bee9cb8432af898), 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](http://www.volokh.com/2013/02/11/letter-to-senator-cruz-on-constitutional-issues-in-federal-gun-control-proposals/) of his decades of research on firearms law and policy.
- Senior fellow Randy Barnett outlined the [constitutional considerations](http://www.volokh.com/2013/02/12/my-letter-to-ted-cruz-on-gun-control-proposals/) that must attend any discussion of gun regulation.
- Chairman Bob Levy attached a short [cover letter](https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/wp-content/uploads/levy_letter_to_cruz.pdf) to his timely [*National Law Journal* article](http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202587764936&Reflections_o&slreturn=20130113113838) that critiques the current state of play.
- I sent in [an essay](https://www.cato.org/publications/testimony/proposals-reduce-gun-violence) 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.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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