Public event on November 1 takes a multidisciplinary look into the current nationwide crisis, the law, ethics, and psychology of mass shootings, the challenges faced by law enforcement and government, and strategies to prevent these tragedies.
The Neuroscience and Law Center at Fordham Law School will host a public symposium to discuss the neuroscience of mass shootings. The virtual program will:
- analyze, in the wake of recent events, the connection between mental illness and mass shootings and the characteristics that make up the typical mass shooter,
- examine the challenges faced by law enforcement and government officials, and
- discuss methods that may help curb the mass shootings epidemic, such as gun control, various security measures, and legislation reform.
The event, which is open to the public, will take place on Tuesday, November 1, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is co-sponsored by the John and Diane Simpson Foundation and John and Rosemary McManus.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), guns are now the leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 1 to 24, and active shooter incidents have skyrocketed over the last decade. In the wake of the tragedy at Uvalde and the other mass shooting incidents that occurred this year alone, including the recent tragic events at Central Visual and Performing Arts high school in St. Louis, this symposium is the first to focus on neuroscientific approaches to mass shootings. The presentations will include a broad range of perspectives with an array of leading experts from varying backgrounds, including two state senators, judges, psychiatrists, criminologists, lawyers, and law professors.
“The incident at Uvalde brought to light an ethical dilemma involving police involvement and inactivity in the face of a school shooting. Mass shootings, and in particular, school shootings, are occurring at an alarming rate, and yet the government and law enforcement have not done much to stop them,” said Deborah Denno, founding director of Fordham Law’s Neuroscience and Law Center. “This conference will touch on the ethical issues associated with gun violence prevention and the lack thereof. It will also touch on how mass shooters should be regarded and punished within the criminal justice system.”
“The Neuroscience of Mass Shootings” virtual symposium will feature four expert panel discussions:
- Panel one (11:10 a.m. – 12:25 p.m.), “Mass Shootings and the Current Nationwide Crisis,” focuses on the methods lawmakers and legislators are currently using to address this crisis, and provides both a domestic and international perspective on mass shootings. The panel will feature New York Senators Gustavo Rivera and Shelley Mayer, along with Adam Lankford, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at The University of Alabama, and Elizabeth Bennett, an Appellate Judge from Vancouver, Canada.
- Panel two (12:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.), focuses on the law, ethics, and psychology of mass shootings and explores the legal and ethical issues relating to mass shootings, as well as the intersection between law and psychology in regard to policymaking, victim representation, and gun regulation. The panel features Joseph Blocher, a professor of law at Duke Law School, where he also co-directs the Center for Firearms Law; Douglas Fierberg, founder of the Fierberg National Law Group, a law firm that specializes in representing victims and survivors of mass shootings; Nancy Gertner a retired United States District Court judge and current Managing Director at the MGH Center for Law, Brain & Behavior; and David Rosmarin, the director of forensic science at McLean Hospital at Harvard Medical School.
- Panel three (2:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.): “Inside the Brain of the Mass Shooter and the Impact of Their Criminal Behavior,” provides a researched description of the inner workings into the mind of the mass shooter and how their behavior has affected law making, mental health outreach, physician care, and society. It features Dr. Amy Barnhorst, director of the BulletPoints Project at the California Firearm Violence Research Center at the University of California at Davis; John J. Donohue professor of law at Stanford University; Jed S. Rakoff, a United States District Court judge for the Southern District of New York; and Dr. Laurence Steinberg, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University.
- Panel four (3:35 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.), will address methods to prevent mass shootings. Services to be discussed includes mental health, security, and gun control, as well as the ethical concerns associated with prevention. The panel features Dr. Angelyn Spaulding, professor of Homeland Security and Administration of Justice at the University of the District of Columbia; Fordham University School of Law Professor Nicholas Johnson; Jin Kim, a retired FBI Active Shooter subject matter expert and founder of the PerSec Academy and Advisory Group; and Katherine Schweit, founder of Schweit Consulting LLC, a security consulting business.
Fordham’s Neuroscience and Law Center explores how advances in neuroscience have prompted the legal profession to question long-held notions about criminal culpability, free will, thought, behavior, and pain. The Center is dedicated to using a multidisciplinary, evidence-based approach to examine the current and potential uses of neuroscience evidence, advancing legal scholarship and the use of neuroscience in legal circles, and providing information to academics, lawyers, and the public about legally relevant advances in neuroscience.
