Law Profs Tout Qualified Immunity for Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions

August 02, 2023

Promoting impunity for violating rights as a policy tool? What could go wrong?

by J.D. Tuccille Reason.com

Some ideas are so terrible that combining them into a cocktail of awfulness makes rotten sense. So it is with gun control and qualified immunity: Why not mix impunity for violating basic rights with denial of a specific right so as to maximize the harm? At least, that’s the inspiration that struck two law professors who propose qualified immunity for enforcing even overtly unconstitutional gun control measures. While the duo sees the idea as much as a means of weakening officials’ protections from liability as for promoting restrictions on private arms, it’s a dangerous innovation that could entrench authoritarianism.