In the battle to dismantle gun restrictions, one name keeps turning up in the legal briefs and judges’ rulings: William English. A little-known political economist at Georgetown University, English conducted a largest-of-its-kind national survey that found gun owners frequently used their weapons for self-defense. That finding has been deployed by gun rights activists to notch legal victories with far-reaching consequences, reports the New York Times. He has been cited in a Supreme Court case that invalidated many restrictions on guns, and in scores of lawsuits to overturn limits on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and the carrying of firearms. His findings were offered in another Supreme Court case with a decision expected this month. English seems to be an impartial researcher interested in data-driven insights. He has said his “scholarly arc” focuses on good public policy, and his lack of apparent ties to the gun lobby has lent credibility to his work. English’s interest in firearms is more than academic: He has received tens of thousands of dollars as a paid expert for gun rights advocates. His survey work originated as research for a National Rifle Association-backed lawsuit. He has drawn scrutiny in some courts over the reliability and integrity of his unpublished survey, which is the core of his research, and his refusal to disclose who paid for it.
Other researchers say that the wording of some questions could elicit answers overstating defensive gun use, and that he cherry-picked pro-gun responses. “I have been struck by the enormous attention and influence the William English paper has had,” said Joseph Blocher of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke University. “It just sort of came out of nowhere, posted online without going through formal peer review, and by a guy most of us had never heard of.” English’s National Firearms Survey has figured prominently in a broad gun rights campaign that has transformed the law. The effort is driven by litigation and sometimes questionable scholarship, backed with millions of dollars in dark money flowing through nonprofits that may exist only on paper. The Center for Human Liberty, which filed a 2021 pro-gun Supreme Court brief jointly with English, has no staff and uses a rent-by-the-hour office provider in Las Vegas. The Constitutional Defense Fund, with a UPS Store in Virginia as its address, has served as a conduit for anonymous donations to Second Amendment groups, law firms and English. The Firearms Policy Coalition, the busiest litigant of gun cases, has made extensive use of English’s survey, including introducing it in the Supreme Court case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. English’s work was cited in multiple briefs in that case, as well as in oral arguments and Justice Samuel Alito’s concurring opinion.