Please join the IOP for a debate on the Second Amendment. Getting to the heart of issue surrounding “the right to bear arms,” two debaters, Zachary Elkins and Clark Neily, will argue both sides of the motion, “The Second Amendment should be amended.” This event is a part of the FIRE Debates series, which is sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, thefire.org).

Zachary Elkins, an associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, will argue for the motion. Clark Neily, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice (IJ), will argue against the motion.

Zachary Elkins focuses his research on issues of democracy, national identity, and institutional reform, with an emphasis on governments in Latin American countries. Elkins co-authored The Endurance of National Constitutions, which explores the factors that increase the endurance and survival of national constitutions. He is currently completing a book manuscript titled Designed by Diffusion: Constitutional Reform in Developing Democracies, which examines the origins of democratic institutions in the developing world.

In addition to serving as an attorney for IJ, Clark Neily privately represented the plaintiffs in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court case that held that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep a gun for self-defense. Neily serves as the director of IJ’s Center for Judicial Engagement, and is the author of Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government, which discusses how courts can maintain constitutionally limited government.