Our annual Second Amendment Symposium will be held on April 10, 2026, at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder. Register to attend the event in-person or virtually.
Please check this page for updates.
Every year, our team brings together leading scholars, legal practitioners, social scientists, survivors, and community stakeholders for a one-of-its-kind gathering on the Second Amendment. Alongside our attorneys, attendees examine critical issues at the intersection of gun violence prevention, industry regulation, and Second Amendment jurisprudence. The event features a series of panel discussions led by subject-matter experts, offering various perspectives on the legal, historical, and societal dimensions of guns and gun violence in the United States.
This year’s symposium theme is “Modern Weapons, Historical Tradition, and the Second Amendment.” What happens when 18th century constitutional text meets 21st century weapons in a pluralistic society? Can historical tradition keep pace with modern firepower in our polarized times? National experts will examine the legal and policy battles shaping gun violence prevention today, including assault weapon bans, conduct based gun prohibitions, 3D printed firearms, and deadly tensions between armed protesters and police.
Over the years, the Second Amendment Symposium has brought together a diverse and interdisciplinary group of speakers. Our panelists have included legal scholars, historians, public health professionals, technical firearms experts, practitioners, and frontline advocates—together offering a wide range of perspectives and proposed solutions to the urgent challenges of gun violence facing our communities today.
Interested in presenting at the upcoming Second Amendment Symposium? Please contact us at symposium@giffords.org.
Our symposiums offer a dynamic mix of programming—including keynote panels, roundtable discussions, and breakout sessions —designed to foster meaningful engagement with both the issues and the experts.
This year, we’re proud to host the symposium at the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law at the University of Colorado Law School. See the lineup of events below.
AGENDA
- Panel 1 | Regulating Unusually Dangerous Weapons in a Post-Bruen World
- Saul Cornell, Professor, Fordham University
- Jennifer Tucker, Director of Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan University
- Andrew Willinger, Assistant Professor, GSU Law
- Moderator: Kevin Schascheck, Forrester Fellow at Tulane Law School
- Panel 2 | Wolford, Hemani, and the Second Amendment Under the Second Trump Administration
- Ian Ayres, Professor, Yale Law
- Hayley Lawrence, Executive Director, Duke Center for Firearms Law
- Eric Ruben, Associate Professor, SMU Law
- Megan Ward, Law Student, Northeastern School of Law
- Moderator: Billy Clark, Senior Litigation Attorney, GIFFORDS Law Center
- Keynote | Breaking the Cycle: Stories of Strength and Survival of Gun Violence
- Kaliah Yizar, Student, Howard University ’26, Game Changer, CU Boulder’s Youth Violence Prevention Center-Denver
- Angel Shabazz, CEO, DJ Armstrong Foundation
- Jonathan McMillian, Executive Producer and Violence Prevention/Intervention Consultant
- Beverly Kingston, Director, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and CU Boulder’s Youth Violence Prevention Center-Denver
- Moderator: Dahni Austin, Student, University of Colorado Boulder ’26, Game Changer, CU Boulder’s Youth Violence Prevention Center-Denver
- Panel 3 |3D-Printed Ghost Guns and the Challenge of Regulation in the Digital Age
- Brian DeLay, Professor, UC Berkeley
- Sol Diamond, Co-Director, Design Initiative at Dartmouth College
- Mark Frassetto, Deputy Director, Everytown Law
- Moderator:Leigh Rome, Senior Litigation Attorney, GIFFORDS Law Center
- Panel 4 | Protests and Public Carry: The Intersection of the First and Second Amendments
- Helen Norton, Professor, UC Boulder Law
- Jake Charles, Associate Professor, Pepperdine Law
- Shira Feldman, Senior Director of Constitutional Litigation, Brady
- Brennan Gardner Rivas, Postdoctoral Researcher, Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan University
- Moderator: P. Deep Gulasekaram, Professor and Director of Byron White Center, UC Boulder Law
Each year, we collaborate with a law review at the symposium’s host institution to publish a dedicated print and online volume of articles related to the Second Amendment theme covered by the symposium.
Interested in publishing scholarship for the upcoming Second Amendment Symposium? Please contact us at symposium@giffords.org.
GIFFORDS LAW CENTER SYMPOSIUMS
2024 Buffalo, NY
Paths Forward from the Age of Gun Violence: Industry Accountability and the Modern Second Amendment
Hosted at University of Buffalo School of Law.
2023 MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Aiming for Answers: Balancing Rights, Safety, and Justice in a Post-Bruen America
Hosted at University of Minnesota Law School.
2023 chicago, il
Litigating the Second Amendment: Gun Safety Advocacy in the Wake of Heller and Bruen
Hosted at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign College of Law.
2022 los angeles, ca
“Guns Everywhere: Individual Rights and Communal Harms after NYSRPA v. Bruen“
Hosted at University of California-Los Angeles School of Law.
2021 davis, ca
“The Second Amendment at the Supreme Court: ‘700 Years of History’ and the Modern Effects of Guns in Public“
Hosted at University of California-Davis School of Law.
2019 san francisco, ca
“Heller at 10: A Symposium on the Last and Next Decade of the Modern Second Amendment“
Hosted at University of California-Hastings School of Law.
Interested in hosting a Second Amendment Symposium at your law school? Please fill out this form.
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