Gun Control

Although gun control is a topic at the forefront of the national conversation, it’s rare to see a structured debate on gun policy reform between those on opposing sides of the issue. On Feb. 28, the Advocacy, Dialogue, and Debate Lab for Civil Discourse Education and Vanderbilt Political Review hosted a debate on gun control policy between Vanderbilt College Republicans and College Democrats on gun control policy. It was the first time in several years that the two organizations held a formal debate. The event was sponsored by Dialogue Vanderbilt. Read More

As a follow-up to the successful and illuminating Agnon Dialogues discussion on gun restrictions, Vanderbilt Debate lab is partnering with Vanderbilt Political Review, College Republicans and College Democrats to host a debate on gun control policy Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. Read More

About the same time a Vanderbilt University School of Medicine panel discussion on gun violence prevention ended Feb. 14 in Light Hall, a heavily armed young man barged into his former high school in Parkland, Florida, and opened fire on students and teachers, killing 17 and injuring others. Read More

A panel discussion on gun violence prevention, along with a moderated public debate, will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Read More

Sociologist Amy Cooter says the acquittal may set a "legal and psychological precedent" for groups seeking to take action against a federal government they mistrust. Read More

Vanderbilt University's Jonathan Metzl, a mental health and mass shootings expert, and Liz Zechmeister, who studies perceptions of political leaders after terrorism, shed light on the Orlando mass shooting. Read More

Jonathan Metzl, director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, writes: "Again and again, people with whom I spoke raised concerns, not just about the lethal potential of firearms, but about the ways that allowing guns into previously gun-free communal spaces might impact a host of commonplace civic encounters as well." Read More

The complex and often under-addressed political issues facing health and health care in the United States will be tackled March 17-18 during a major interdisciplinary conference at Vanderbilt University, "The Politics of Health in the U.S. South." The conference is free and open to the public. Read More

Jonathan Metzl of Vanderbilt University can comment on the sentencing of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes. Read More

Jury selection is set to begin in the mass shooting trial James Holmes. Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 more when he allegedly opened fire in a Colorado movie theatre in 2012. Vanderbilt psychiatrist, sociologist director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society Dr. Jonathan Metzl, is an expert on gun violence and mental illness. Read More

An extensive new study by two Vanderbilt University researchers challenges common assumptions about gun violence and mental illness that often emerge in the aftermath of mass shootings. Read More

After the horrific mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2011, a conservative commentator claimed that “guns don’t kill people—the mentally ill do.” Metzl believes this attitude is based on misconceptions about mental illness and violence that obscure larger issues about gun violence in America. Read More

When a mass shooting occurs there are often two camps of thought: those who feel the country needs stronger gun laws and those who blame the horrific act on mental illness. Read More