Firearms Law Works-in-Progress Conference 2025

This June, the University of Wyoming Firearms Research Center and the Duke Center for Firearms Law will host their seventh annual joint Works-in-Progress Conference. These two Centers are the only firearms law/policy centers in the United States that are open to and that publish papers from diverse viewpoints. I am a Senior Fellow at the Wyoming Center

If your paper is accepted for the Wyoming/Duke Conference, you are of course free to eventually publish it in any journal you want; however, there is an expectation that you will write a summary of the paper for publication on the blogs of the Wyoming and Duke Centers.

To present a paper, you do not need to be a professor. Past conferences have included, from example, some fine presentations from practicing lawyers. (Or muggles, as law professors secretly call them.)

The conference is also an excellent opportunity for friendly interactions with scholars from other disciplines, and with diverse viewpoints on arms issues. At last year’s conference, Minnesota Law prof. Megan Walsh publicly humiliated me by presenting me in a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey, to commemorate Minnesota’s defeat of the reigning champion Denver Nuggets in the NBA Conference semifinals, including a 115-70 obliteration in game 6.

Below is the call for papers:

DATE: June 5-6, 2025

LOCATION: Laramie, WY

ABSTRACTS DUE: February 17, 2025

The University of Wyoming Firearms Research Center and the Duke Center for Firearms Law invite applications to participate in the seventh annual Firearms Law Works-in-Progress Conference. The conference will be held at the University of Wyoming College of Law in Laramie, Wyoming, on June 5 & 6, 2025. We ask all those interested in presenting a paper at the conference to submit an abstract by February 17, 2025.

At the Firearms WIP Conference, scholars and practitioners present and discuss works-in-progress related to firearms law and policy broadly defined, including Second Amendment history and doctrine, federal and state gun regulation, and the intersection between firearms law and other areas of law. The Firearms WIP Conference is the only legal works-in-progress event specifically focused on firearms law and policy. Summaries of past conferences, including paper titles and attendees, are available here: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Conference sessions are lively discussions among authors, discussants, and participants. Each accepted paper is assigned to a panel of three to four scholars with a moderator who will summarize the papers and then lead a discussion. Sessions run from Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon. There will be a casual dinner and social event Thursday evening following the afternoon session. All conference participants are expected to read the papers in advance and to attend the entire conference.

We accept papers on a wide array of topics related to firearms, including from scholars who are new to the field and interested in exploring the interaction between firearms law and other disciplines. Although participation at the conference is by invitation only, we welcome paper proposals from scholars and practitioners all over the world. Please feel free to share this call for submissions widely.

Submission Details

• Titles and abstracts of papers should be submitted electronically to frc@uwyo.edu no later than February 17, 2025. Abstracts should be no longer than one page, and should be submitted as a PDF file saved under the file name “[last name, first name] – [paper title].” Please use the subject line “WIP Paper Submission” in your email.
• Authors will be informed whether their paper has been accepted no later than March 10, 2025.
• Workshop versions of accepted papers will be due in mid-May, so that they can be circulated to moderators and other conference participants in advance of the conference.

We expect that participants’ home institutions will cover travel expenses to the extent possible. However, the Wyoming FRC and Duke CFL are able to cover some costs of lodging and travel expenses for authors who would not otherwise be able to attend. This support is intended to encourage submissions from junior faculty, especially those who are new to the field.