The Firearms Research Center (FRC) entered 2025 with strong momentum, building on our mission to foster informed, balanced, and rigorous scholarship on firearms law and policy. This year, we have expanded our programming, deepened our research contributions, and continued to serve as a hub for intellectual exchange on a diverse range of firearms related legal, historical, and cultural topics.
The first half of the year has been marked by significant scholarly contributions. We published six new Working Papers that explore critical issues at the intersection of firearms law, history, and constitutional interpretation, including topics such as Chad P. Wilson’s Seeking Cover from the Trigger-Happy ATF: Does the ATF Satisfy Bruen? and Timothy Hsiao’s The Right to Fight Back and the Right to Own a Gun. These papers, available in our Working Papers library, demonstrate the diversity of thought and analysis that defines our mission.
Our Forum continues to grow as an online hub for thoughtful discussion and analysis. With more than 60 posts this year, the Forum has explored evolving legal questions, historical contexts, and cultural perspectives, providing readers with a deeper understanding of firearms and the Second Amendment.
The FRC was also proud to be featured in the Wyoming Law Review’s spring Special Issue on the National Firearms Act (NFA), which built upon the scholarship presented during our 2024 Fall Conference. This issue expanded the dialogue on one of the oldest and most significant firearms laws in American history and reflected the Center’s commitment to advancing meaningful academic work on complex legal questions.
Public engagement remains a cornerstone of our mission, and 2025 has been no exception. FRC has hosted six Virtual Seminars covering a wide range of topics, including constitutional interpretations of firearms laws, firearms technology, and public safety. These seminars continue to make expert-driven, accessible content available to a broad audience, ensuring that critical conversations reach far beyond the academic community.
A highlight of the year was our hosting of the Seventh Annual Firearms Law Works-in-Progress Conference on June 5–6, 2025. Held in the newly remodeled University of Wyoming College of Law, the event brought together scholars, practitioners, and researchers from across the country, and internationally, to share developing research and receive valuable feedback. This ongoing partnership with the Duke Center for Firearms Law provides a unique forum for cross-disciplinary collaboration and constructive critique. The exchange of ideas and collegial atmosphere reflected the growing maturity and importance of firearms scholarship, ensuring that ongoing research remains balanced, nuanced, and impactful.
A review of the WIP by our executive director Ashely Hlebinsky is available here. In the early second half of 2025, the FRC will be publishing a series of Forum posts from the scholars who presented at this year’s conference.
Just this week, the FRC submitted a grant application for the Department of Education’s American History and Civics – National Activities Grant in honor of America’s Semiquincentennial seeking funds to educate secondary education teachers on the Second Amendment, providing historical videos, bipartisan webinars, access to a future primary source database, and a national in-person conference.
The first half of 2025 has shown how impactful scholarship and open dialogue can advance public understanding of firearms law and policy. As we look toward the remainder of the year, we remain committed to expanding our research initiatives, online resources, and events. Whether through academic publications, public seminars, or online engagement, the FRC continues to foster informed, evidence-based discourse on one of the most pressing and often polarized issues of our time.