Lawyers, advocacy groups and think tanks are soliciting historians’ expertise on the history underlying certain Supreme Court cases. Yet this history-for-hire approach raises questions.
An image shows the firearms found in the car driven by Gabriel Wortman, the perpetrator of the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that left 22 people dead. It was shown at the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
Over the past year, Ottawa has had a mixed record in implementing the Mass Casualty Commission’s firearm recommendations. Some provinces, however, have sought to limit implementation.
The judicial theory has been a major talking point during the Supreme Court’s last term. But what does it actually mean?
Reenactments of Old West gunfights, like this one at a tourist attraction in Texas in 2014, are part of the mythology underpinning the United States’ gun culture.
Carol M. Highsmith via Library of Congress
A scholar of gun culture looks at the roots of Americans’ love affair with firearms – and their willingness to accept gun violence as a price of freedom.
President Joe Biden signs the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
The ways Americans talk about firearms is full of contradictions, two communication scholars explain – and that powerfully shapes the country’s approach to gun policy.
Family and friends follow the casket of 10-year-old Jose Flores after a funeral service in Uvalde, Texas. Flores, an honour student, was killed in the latest elementary school shooting in the United States.
(AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The latest mass school shooting in Texas has renewed the debate about gun control. Here’s why gun advocates generally avoid discussing the harm that assault-style rifles can cause.
The front page of the local newspaper in Uvalde, Texas, on May 26, 2022.
Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images)
The nature of elected office combines with the lasting priorities of public opinion to put gun control on the back burner, even in times when it does get massive public attention.
NRA conventiongoers, like these at the gun group’s 2018 big meeting, browse firearms exhibits.
Loren Elliott/AFP via Getty Images
Experts help explain the context around the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and subsequent trial and convictions of Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael and William Bryan.
The National Rifle Association may soon get a major legal victory.
scottlitt/iStock via Getty Images Plus
The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that you have a constitutional right to have a gun in your home. Now, the justices will consider how far outside of the home that right extends.
A gun rights advocate walks through the rotunda of the Kentucky Capitol. Some lawyers argue that the 1689 English Bill of Rights created the legal basis for public carry of weapons in the U.S.
Bryan Woolston/Getty Images
Many gun rights advocates claim that the right to carry guns is a universal right that has spanned centuries and nations. History tells a different story.
Dozens of people attended an open carry rally led by Joey Gibson, leader of the Patriot Prayer group, on May 20, 2018, in Seattle.
Karen Ducey/Getty Images
The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that you have a constitutional right to have a gun in your home. Now, the justices will consider how far outside of the home that right extends.
As October begins, the Supreme Court opens its new term.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The big case is about abortion, but there are other very important issues before the Supreme Court – including gun rights and government funding for religious schools.