Oral

Following the tragic shootings in Newtown, CT, Aurora, CO, and elsewhere, a national conversation has been renewed about appropriate measures to make it harder for high risk persons to obtain and use firearms. Numerous proposals at the federal, state, and local levels are currently being considered. This special session, proposed by the Law Section and endorsed by the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section and others, will explore law and policy approaches to targeting different categories of high risk persons and ways that they acquire guns. The panel will present new research regarding the effects of permit-to-purchase firearm licensing systems, including Missouri’s repeal of its permitting system in 2005 and Connecticut’s adoption of such a system in 1995. Then, the panel will consider ways that the practices of firearm manufacturers and distributors facilitate or impede gun acquisition by high risk persons, and how the law can affect those practices. Next, research regarding legal strategies to protect intimate partners from abusers with firearms will be reviewed. Finally, the panel will present research demonstrating that undercover stings and lawsuits against gun dealers, including actions brought by New York City in 2006, can dramatically reduce gun trafficking. The session will also review recent changes to federal and state laws that may make such interventions more difficult in the future. Law and policy approaches are equally important in addressing not just high profile mass shooting but the approximately 100,000 firearm-related deaths and injuries in the United States each year.

Session Objectives: 1) Identify legal approaches to keeping guns from high risk persons; 2) Assess the limitations of current federal and state gun laws; 3) Describe and provide support for effective, evidence-based firearm policies.