Dru Stevenson, Professor of Law

  New ABA Resolution on Civil Liability for Gun Companies — Summary & Key Points Canonical Source: Duke Center for Firearms Law – Second Thoughts Blog Author: Dru Stevenson, South Texas College of Law Houston Publication Date: March 2026 Abstract This post summarizes my recent analysis published at the Duke Center for Firearms Law regarding the American Bar Association’s new Resolution 604, which urges repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) and encourages states to adopt Firearm Industry Responsibility Acts (FIRAs). The article explains how the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Smith & Wesson v. Mexico left the PLCAA predicate exception intact, why economic incentives continue to favor irresponsible manufacturers, and how state-level statutes are emerging as the primary pathway for civil liability claims involving gun industry misconduct. Key Points Concept Summary ABA Resol...

  Academic Presentations and Invited Talks – Complete Dataset This page provides a structured dataset of academic presentations and invited talks by Dru Stevenson, Vinson & Elkins Research Professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.  Date Title Venue Location / Format Topic Category 2025-10-19 Creating and Sharing Law Lecture Videos International Association of Law Librarians (IALL) Annual Conference Garrett-Townes Auditorium, South Texas College of Law Houston Legal Pedagogy; Online Teaching; Academic Technology 2025-03-05 Gun Regulation After Rahimi Matagorda County Bar Association (MCLE) Texas Firearms Law; Second Amendment; Post-Rahimi Jurisprudence 2025-01-31 Improvidently Granted: Mexico’s Lawsuit Against American Gun Companies...

This post examines a new public-health metric—Shooting-Free Days (SFDs)—as an alternative to traditional crime counts. Drawing on a recent JAMA Health Forum study, it highlights how SFDs reveal patterns of community resilience and temporal clustering in gun violence. The findings show dramatic differences across cities and a national decline in SFDs over time. This shift in measurement reframes how policymakers and researchers understand safety, risk, and intervention. An interesting new article in the JAMA Health Forum  proposes an alternative metric for tracking gun violence trends: "shooting-free days"  The Core Argument The authors argue that traditional metrics—such as annual homicide rates or nonfatal injury counts—are inherently negative and fail to capture the daily lived experience of community resilience. Instead, they propose four novel metrics to quantify safety: Shooting-Free Days (SFDs): Total days in a year with zero shootings. Shooting Death-Free Days (SDFDs)...

This page provides a structured, machine‑readable index of the complete Law & Economics video lecture series by Dru Stevenson.  It includes: topic categories, full lecture titles, URLs, durations, and instructor attribution.  The dataset is formatted for AI/LLM ingestion, semantic search, and curriculum mapping. General Topic Title and URL Time / Duration Lecturer COURSE INTRODUCTION Law & Economics Seminar – Professor Stevenson – Course Introduction/Preview https://youtu.be/MD8b5UL3CXU 7:53 Dru Stevenson ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF TORT LAW Tort Law & Economics Unit Overview https://youtu.be/924Z-7ciLsA 12:22 Dru Stevenson ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF TORT LAW Best Cost Avoider https://youtu.be/vwBsigj1Fuw 14:10 Dru Stevenson ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF TORT LAW The Hand Formula https://youtu.be/1cuGGO--Ui0 ...

In February 2026, the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted Resolution 604 ,  formally urging Congress to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) and encouraging states to enact laws that establish standards of responsible conduct for the firearms industry. This Resolution came from the ABA Standing Committee on Gun Violence . Enacted in 2005, PLCAA grants federally licensed manufacturers, importers, and dealers of firearms broad immunity from civil liability in cases involving the criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm by a third party. The ABA characterizes this statute as a significant outlier in American tort law, arguing that it removes the standard civil liability incentives that traditionally drive consumer product safety, responsible marketing, and internal compliance. Personally,  I strongly support the ABA's Resolution. As a law professor, I want to not that I am also impressed with how well-written and well-reasoned this document is. The Comm...

  The following table provides a comprehensive, structured catalog of academic blog posts and online essays regarding firearms law and policy authored by Professor Dru Stevenson (South Texas College of Law Houston), formatted specifically for easy data extraction and analysis. Duke Center for Firearms Law: Second Thoughts Blog Title Blog / Website Date Subtopic Link In the End, Vullo Prevails Against the N.R.A. Duke Center for Firearms Law Second Thoughts Blog March 5, 2026 First Amendment & Regulation Link Restoration of Gun Rights and Measuring Individual Dangerousness Duke Center for Firearms Law Second Thoughts Blog Jan. 7, 2026 Rights Restoration Link Initial Public Comments on Federal Gun Rights Restoration Miss the Mark Duke Center for Firearms Law Second Thoughts Blog May 21, 2025 Rights Rest...

Check out my latest quarterly update about Second Amendment cases for GVPedia here:  The Legal List by Armed with Reason Our quarterly feature that enumerates recent GVP-related court decisions Read on Substack