Maxwell School News and Commentary

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says no single law will solve the issues of gun violence. “You have to think very specifically about it,” Reeher says. “There is no one blanket policy that is going to say, ‘OK, this is going to reduce gun violence and it is going to apply equally to everybody.’ You have to think of the pockets and where the risk is.”

“The critical difference is there was no threat to the integrity of a democracy in Tennessee,” says William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. “Insurrection conditions occur when civilian authorities are unable to enforce the laws. That was a real threat on Jan. 6. Not so in Nashville.”

Discussing the AR-15's appeal on the right, Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells Newsweek: "In large part, I think it's because this particular rifle has become such a public target for Democrats and liberals regarding gun regulation and control. ...The rifle has become a symbol of the debate over gun control, and the political right is more associated with gun ownership and rights."

“This is not the end of what may happen,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, associate professor of history and political science. “It may in fact be the beginning. We've never seen this before, and I don't think we can dismiss it as a partisan political act. Certainly, there have been other presidents who have had strong opposition in the past and yet they have not faced this kind of jeopardy.”

As public concerns about crime mounted in the 1980s and 1990s, AR-15 marketers started to adjust their depiction of what was on the receiving end of the barrel. “People, rather than animals, were the target,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. “That allows it to be sold more as a self-defense weapon, particularly inside the home.”

"For a lot of activists and organizers on the ground, when we talk about abolishing, our idea of abolishing police stems from the idea that there has to be different forms of service and care that allow for communities to take care of themselves and not rely on the police for the whole host of services that they currently provide," says Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science. 

"Here we have yet one more opportunity to fully flesh out and understand what went wrong with the drug war in Mexico and why it could arguably be considered to be a colossal failure," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

Capturing Ovidio Guzmán could be a way for López Obrador to show the U.S. that he is “in control of the armed forces and Mexico’s security situation,” Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations, tells CNN. “It also defuses the power behind any ask from the Biden administration to stem the tide of fentanyl and other narcotics across the border,” she adds.

Grant Reeher, professor of political science says the bills sound like they make sense and they could not only help lower some of the expensive costs of incarceration, but also help with some social issues. “But politically, the timing of these things couldn’t be worse,” Reeher says.

”It was the partnership with Maxwell and CSIS that took me over top as far as picking a graduate program. It is in person, working in conjunction with a well-respected think tank, and it’s nonpartisan,” says Ashan Benedict, executive assistant chief of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.