Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates: The Constitutional Right to Bear Arms Has Outlived Its Usefulness

Recent mass shooting tragedies have renewed the national debate over the 2nd Amendment. Gun ownership and homicide rates are higher in the U.S. than in any other developed nation, but gun violence has decreased over the last two decades even as gun ownership may be increasing. Over 200 years have passed since James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights, the country has changed, and so have it guns. Is the right to bear arms now at odds with the common good, or is it as necessary today as it was in 1789?

For:
Alan Dershowitz, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Sanford Levinson, Professor of Law and of Government, University of Texas

Against:
Eugene Volokh, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
David Kopel, Research Director, Independence Institute & Associate Policy Analyst, Cato Institute