On October 15–16, 2026, the University of Wyoming College of Law’s Firearms Research Center will convene its 2026 Fall Conference, Natural Rights, Regulation, and the Post-Bruen Second Amendment, at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. The two-day conference may be attended either in person or virtually, with CLE credit available for the fireside chat and each of the conference’s three panel discussions. The conference is presented in partnership with the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
The conference comes as courts, scholars, and practitioners continue to assess the implications of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen and the decisions that have followed it. Bruen reshaped Second Amendment doctrine by directing courts toward a text, history, and tradition framework, raising important questions about the relationship between fundamental rights and government regulation. Subsequent cases, including United States v. Rahimi, as well as Wolford v. Lopez and United States v. Hemani, have further placed those questions at the center of contemporary Second Amendment jurisprudence.
Together, these sessions will bring legal, historical, and philosophical perspectives to one of the most rapidly developing areas of constitutional law. The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy will also publish papers developed from the conference in a later issue, extending the symposium’s scholarly discussion beyond the two-day event.
Fireside Chat: Fundamental but Regulated: Rights as Regulable Liberties
The conference will open with a fireside discussion featuring Stephanie Barclay of Georgetown University Law Center and Robert Leider of George Mason University. The conversation will examine the concept of constitutional rights as both fundamental and regulable, drawing upon Founding-era understandings of natural rights and modern scholarship concerning the ways the government may regulate the exercise of a right without subverting the right itself. The discussion will consider how legal doctrine can distinguish bona fide regulation from restrictions that operate as pretextual or functional infringements.
Panel 1: Regulation vs. Subversion of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
The first panel will focus more directly on the boundary between permissible regulation and unconstitutional infringement. Panelists will examine the principles that distinguish laws governing the manner in which a constitutional right is exercised from measures that inhibit, suppress, or effectively nullify that right. The discussion will also consider how the nature of the right itself may inform where that boundary should be drawn.
Panel 2: Beyond Scrutiny: Historical Analogues and the Scope of Rights
The second panel will consider Bruen’s rejection of traditional means-end scrutiny in favor of an approach grounded in text, history, and tradition. Among the questions presented are how courts should identify appropriate historical analogues, how broadly or narrowly those analogues should be framed, and whether a history-focused methodology can appropriately account for circumstances and public-safety concerns that may differ substantially from those of earlier periods.
Panel 3: Bruen’s Progeny: Lessons from Rahimi, Wolford, and Hemani
The final panel will turn to the continuing development of the post-Bruen framework. Using Rahimi, Wolford, and Hemani as focal points, panelists will examine how courts are applying historical reasoning to contemporary disputes and what these cases may reveal about analogical reasoning, the appropriate level of generality, dangerousness-based restrictions, public carry, and other emerging Second Amendment questions.
Learn more about the conference and register to attend in person or virtually HERE.
Official Conference Schedule and Speaker Bios
Robert J. Cottrol
Cottrol is the Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law and Professor of History and Sociology at George Washington University. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale and a J.D. from Georgetown. Cottrol co-authored To Trust the People with Arms (2023), which received the 2025 Thomas M. Cooley Book Prize.
David Kopel
Kopel is Research Director at the Independence Institute, in Denver. Along with Mocsary, he is a coauthor of the textbook “Firearms Law and the Second Amendment.” Kopel has written more than 120 law review articles and two dozen books on the Second Amendment. His work has been cited by seven U.S. Supreme Court opinions, including Bruen, and in over 130 opinions of lower courts.
Erin Murphy
Murphy is a Partner at Clement & Murphy PLLC and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She is a nationally recognized Supreme Court and appellate advocate who has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and nearly all of the federal courts of appeals. The National Law Journal has recognized her as an “Outstanding Woman Lawyer” and a “Litigation Trailblazer.”
F. Lee Francis
Francis is an Assistant Professor of Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, where he teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Administrative Law, and Evidence. A former federal prosecutor and Army JAG officer, his scholarship focuses on the Second Amendment and firearms law. His work has been cited by federal district and appellate courts.
George A. Mocsary
Mocsary is Professor of Law and Director of the Firearms Research Center at the University of Wyoming College of Law. He is co-author of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy, the first law school casebook in the field. His scholarship has been cited by Justice Samuel A. Alito and other federal and state courts.
Haley Proctor
Proctor is an Associate Professor at Notre Dame Law School, where she researches and teaches procedure, constitutional law, and administrative law. She also writes about the Second Amendment for SCOTUSblog. Previously, she was a partner at Cooper & Kirk PLLC and clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge Thomas B. Griffith.
Jamie G. McWilliam
McWilliam is a Research Fellow at the University of Wyoming Firearms Research Center and an Associate at Benbrook Law Group. His scholarship focuses on originalism, natural law, and the Second Amendment, and his work has been cited by several federal courts of appeals. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Lahny Silva
Silva is the Mary Beth Ramey Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Professor at Indiana University Indianapolis Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Her scholarship focuses on the collateral consequences of criminal convictions, particularly housing and firearm statutory exclusions. She also works with students through the McKinney Reentry Clinic to provide legal representation and support to individuals returning from incarceration.
Leo Bernabei
Bernabei is a Fellow at the University of Wyoming Firearms Research Center and a practicing attorney in insurance law. His research focuses on firearms policy and regulation, particularly at the state and local levels. His scholarship on firearms law and the Second Amendment has been cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, scholars, practitioners, and Supreme Court amicus briefs.
Michael P. O’Shea
O’Shea is a Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law and Associate Director of OCU Law’s Center for State Constitutional Law and Government. He is a nationally recognized expert on firearms law and the Second Amendment and co-author of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy. He is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Nelson Lund
Lund is a Distinguished University Professor at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He has written extensively on the Second Amendment and constitutional law and is the author of Rousseau’s Rejuvenation of Political Philosophy. His prior government service includes positions in the U.S. Department of Justice and as associate counsel to the president.
Nicholas J. Johnson
Johnson is a Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, where he teaches gun control, gun rights, contracts, and environmental law. He is co-author of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights and Policy and author of Negroes and the Gun. His firearms scholarship has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has testified before Congress on firearms law.
Randy E. Barnett
Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law Center and Faculty Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. He is the author of numerous books and more than 100 articles and reviews on constitutional law and related subjects. He has also argued constitutional cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Gonzales v. Raich.
Robert Leider
Leider is a Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he teaches criminal law and torts. His scholarship focuses on criminal law, criminal procedure, constitutional law, the use of force, and gun control. He previously clerked for Judge Diane S. Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas.
Stephanie Barclay
Barclay is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and Faculty Co-Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. Her scholarship examines constitutional rights and democratic governance, with an emphasis on religious liberty, free speech, and minority communities. Her work has been published in leading law journals and cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
