Any suggestions from the academics on this list? If you have some, please
e-mail them to Prof. Nuno directly. Thanks,
Eugene
________________________________
From: Stephen A. Nuno [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 7:28 AM
To: Volokh, Eugene
Subject: Re: NAU professor needs help with 2nd Amendment component of
course
Hello,
I am a political science professor at Northern Arizona University. I
am teaching a course called Race, Power and Politics this fall. This class
will explore the literature on racial politics, liberation theory, colonialsim,
etc. This class can be controversial on its face, but its also meant to be a
critical exploration of the writings in the field. Friedman's Capitalism and
Freedom and Hayek's Road to Serfdom will also be assigned. Ironically,
Friedman and Hayek will probably be more controversial to the class given the
nature of the field. I know of no minority politics class that assigns these
books.
Anyways, an important component of this class will be an exploration of
the 2nd Amendment and the historically racist background of many "gun control"
laws. In addition to this, I want to add a field trip to the class, in which
students take a gun safety course and get to fire a weapon. I find that many
minorities are ignorant of the importance of firearms because they have little
exposure to their practical use. With the majority of minorities living in
urban environments, where gun control laws are ubiquitous, guns are
institutionally encouraged to be viewed as taboo, a tool reserved for the state
or the criminal.
This creates a disjunction between minorities and the "culture" of the
2nd Amendment, or the English culture of self-defense. Some folks have tried
to use this as evidence that Hispanics are culturally incompatible with the
established English traditions of American culture.
Even if it was conceded that Hispanics were culturaly incompatible in
this specific area, gun control laws have contributed to an institutional
culture of ignorance regarding firearms. I would like to contribute to
changing that.
My question to you is that I am searching for syllabi, anecdotal
experiences, etc. as suggestions on what to use for the course. I am familiar
with Jim March's work, Clayton Cramer, Eugene Volokh and Dave Kopel. But I am
looking for structural advice on how to do this. This section would probably be
a (excluding the field trip) 5-hour part of the course, which is about 4 class
days.
thank you
Stephen A. Nuño
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