Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement, and the Politics of Race

November 10, 2020 • 12:30 PM • Virtual

Professor Jennifer Carlson will join us to discuss her recently published book, Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement, and the Politics of Race. Drawing on local and national newspapers, interviews with close to eighty police chiefs, and a rare look at gun licensing processes, Carlson explores the ways police talk about guns, and how firearms are regulated in different parts of the country. Examining how organizations such as the National Rifle Association have influence police perspectives, she describes a troubling paradox of guns today - while color-blind laws grant civilians unprecedented rights to own, carry, and use guns, people of color face an all-too-visible system of gun criminalization. This radicalized framework -- undergirding who is "a good guy with a gun" versus "a bad guy with a gun" -- informs and justifies how police understand and pursue public safety. We will have a moderated discussion followed by a Q&A. Please register using the following link: https://duke.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dC0BHSehStmzqI3nfK3UYQ. Sponsored by the Center for Firearms Law. For more information please contact Theresa Boyce at theresa.boyce@law.duke.edu