In 2019 Duke University Law School launched its Firearms Research Center, which purports to "serve as a balanced and reliable resource on firearms law for scholars, judges, lawyers, policymakers, journalists, and interested citizens." Since its inception, though, the Center's scholars have generally treated every pro-Second Amendment court ruling as cause for alarm or criticism, while defending anti-2A rulings handed down by federal and state courts.
Still, there's at least been a veneer of academic neutrality attached to the Firearms Research Center, whether it was warranted or not. That's now been tossed out the window thanks to the decision to hire pro-gun control attorney Hayley Lawrence as the Center's new executive director.
Hayley joins the Center from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, DC office, where she has been a member of the firm’s litigation and white-collar defense practice groups. Hayley specialized in matters relating to national security law, international trade, and anti-money laundering policy. Her pro bono practice focused on representing individuals in criminal justice matters and working with groups like Brady, Giffords, and Everytown to promote gun safety policies as amici before the federal courts of appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
To date, Hayley’s academic publications examine the intersection of gender studies and constitutional law, with a focus on the Second Amendment and voting rights law.
In 2023, Lawrence published an article entitled "Toxic Masculinity and Gender-Based Gun Violence in America: A Way Forward" in the Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, in which she argued that "toxic masculinity may explain why men perpetrate acts of gun violence at adisproportionate rate, and, as a corollary, help us understand what is to be done about the epidemic of violence."
Toxic masculinity posits that, generally, gender constructs and social pressures drive men to suppress emotions, internalize trauma, act out to prove their manliness, demonstrate aggression, and subjugate women. As a result, men may lack peaceful conflict resolution skills or the means to process trauma and negative emotions. This may cause them to turn to violence—against others and against themselves. Guns, in turn, make this violence lethal.
While it's true that, statistically speaking, men are far more likely to commit violent crimes and take their lives with a firearm than women, I'm not convinced that "toxic masculinity" is to blame, especially if it's as widespread as Lawrence suggests. The vast majority of men will never stand accused of committing a violent crime or end their life, with or without a gun, and in Lawrence's view it seems that almost every man is engaged in "toxic masculinity" to one degree or another.
In fact, Lawrence even says that "to be clear, masculinity norms are harmful to men," which suggests that, at least in her worldview, there's no such thing as non-toxic masculinity.
Men who adhere to or were raised to conform with traditional norms of masculinity are at higher risk of experiencing stress, depression, body image issues, substance abuse, and negative social functioning, compared to their female and gender non-conforming counterparts. Those negative health impacts are more pronounced in men who exhibit “toxic” masculine norms—specifically self-reliance, showing dominance over women, and being a “playboy.” These men are also far less likely to seek preventive healthcare for either physical or psychological issues. Scientists have also found a positive correlation between adhering to these masculine norms and engaging with other risky health behaviors like drinking heavily, using tobacco, and developing less healthy dietary habits.
While Lawrence believes "toxic masculinity" is endemic throughout society, it's especially prevalent among male gun owners and we "must enact legal reform to combat the effects of toxic masculinity in society and to reduce the incidence of suicide, intimate partner violence, and mass shootings."
That means (at the very least), enacting a broad prohibition on the purchase and possession of firearms by persons subject to a protective order, closing the “boyfriend loophole,” enacting laws mandating the transfer or sale of a convicted abuser’s firearms upon conviction, and adopting Extreme Risk Protection Order laws in every state.
Our policy solutions must focus on the root causes of gun violence, in particular, oppressive and harmful gender norms, and their manifestations: suicide, intimate partner violence, and mass shootings. We must empower men to break free from those constructs and give them the tools to manage conflict and negative emotions. We must destigmatize and facilitate men’s access to mental health services. Until those broader, social changes take hold, we must enact meaningful gun control reform.
I'm all in favor of destigmatizing mental health, but that's about the only thing Lawrence and I agree on in her conclusion.
Lawrence only graduated from law school in 2021, so she doesn't have a long record in academia or private practice to look at, but her previoius employer Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has helped to defend Maryland's Handgun Qualification License, California's ban on so-called assault weapons, and Fairfax County, Virginia's ban on lawful concealed carry in public parks and at or adjacent to permitted events or events that require a permit, among others.
Duke Law can hire anyone it wants to run its Firearms Research Center, and perhaps Lawrence will prove me wrong by allowing Second Amendment scholarship that runs contrary to her own personal ideology. For the time being though, Duke Law has shed its veil of academic neutrality in favor of outright anti-gun activism, and I guess we should thank them for no longer trying to hide its contempt for the Second Amendment.
