Name: Sam

Social Justice Group: Gun Control

Date of Fieldwork: November 21, 2017

Name of Organization: Molly and James Harris

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: James Harris

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We went to the office of James Harris who is a criminal defense lawyer and asked him some questions on gun control and gun violence. He showed us lots of articles and gave us lots of information.

What I learned:

We learned that for each gun crime there is a different level of punishment and some could be very bad or not so bad. For example, selling illegal guns can be a very big deal when carrying a gun without open carry laws won be as big. We also learned that lots of people buy guns from other states where it easy to buy a gun then brings it into new york and sells it illegally in New York. And there is a common gun store that lots of people go to if they are registered to have a gun in China town called the Police Supply store.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

During the fieldwork, I learned that there needs to be stronger background checks with guns and better laws. Today it is too easy to get a gun in a lot of places. And many people who are buying guns are using them in bad ways. I also learned that James Harris has to defend criminals even if he thinks what they did was wrong. That can make his job very hard but a criminal is allowed to get a lawyer and a defense. For example, the guy who did the Las Vegas shooting is allowed to get a lawyer even though what they did was bad. So each Human has a right to have a defense and a say no matter what they did.