The fight over the Second Amendment usually lives on talk shows and social media.
Now, almost a million federal dollars are heading somewhere very different: a law school firearms research center in Wyoming that wants to help high school teachers teach the 2A with actual history and primary sources instead of noise.
The Firearms Research Center (FRC) at the University of Wyoming College of Law just landed a $908,991 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s American History and Civics Education Program. The money will fund a national project called “Armed with Knowledge: A Nonpartisan Second Amendment Initiative.”
The goal is simple but ambitious: give secondary school teachers real tools to explain the origins, legal interpretation, and civic implications of the right to keep and bear arms.
Center Director Professor George Mocsary (who co-authored the first-ever Second Amendment law school casebook) says today’s discourse often buries the doctrine under pure politics.
This project, he explains, aims for an “apolitical approach” focused on legal and civic foundations, the early understanding at the founding, and how the Second Amendment’s role has evolved over time through court decisions and culture.
Instead of slogans, teachers get primary sources, instructional videos, and live access to scholars with a wide range of views.
Over the two-year grant, educators will be able to join webinars, attend an in-person conference, and tap into a free digital archive of historical legal sources.
The program is designed to help teachers handle hard constitutional topics, especially as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.
FRC Executive Director Ashley Hlebinsky frames it as a chance to honor the semiquincentennial by giving educators and students a deeper grasp of constitutional text, structure, and jurisprudence. And the skills to debate those ideas respectfully.
The initiative will be run by the FRC staff with help from an advisory committee that includes K–12 educators, scholars, public health experts, and UW’s College of Education.
The plan calls for layered professional development using AI-assisted archival research and open-access media so teachers can build “habits of mind” like critical inquiry, evidentiary reasoning, and serious civic deliberation.
Founded in 2023, the Firearms Research Center bills itself as a nonpartisan institution dedicated to education, constitutional literacy, and legal-historical scholarship around the Second Amendment.
It already hosts conferences and webinars, publishes research, and keeps a roster of academic fellows with different viewpoints.
The center also works with law enforcement and public health agencies on firearms safety and suicide prevention. Now, it’s adding a national civics play aimed straight at the classroom.
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