Balancing Rights and Responsibilities: The Role of Government and Citizens in Combatting Gun Violence
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2022
ISSN
0002-7162
Publisher
SAGE Publishing
Language
en-US
Abstract
Congress passed the first federal legislation on firearms safety in decades at nearly the same moment that the Supreme Court issued its first major Second Amendment decision since 2008. It will take time to assess the effects of these actions on both gun safety and Second Amendment rights, but, with gun violence skyrocketing across the country, it is clear that finding a balance between rights and safety is desperately needed. The public is ill-equipped to protect itself against the broad harms of gun violence, so the government has a central role to play in addressing those harms and the racial disparities that come with them. Gun owners, too, must recognize their obligations to fellow citizens, not only to act responsibly with firearms, but to accept the limitations of their constitutional protections. An evidence-based path forward can be forged that mitigates the harm of gun violence while minimally burdening the rights and interests of those who own firearms.
Recommended Citation
Michael Ulrich,
Balancing Rights and Responsibilities: The Role of Government and Citizens in Combatting Gun Violence
,
in
704
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
292
(2022).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3757
