Mike McIntire on the Effects of Open Carry Laws in the United States Today

Air Dates: February 6-12, 2023  

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to free speech. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms. Mike McIntire documents what happens when those two rights clash and the chilling effect open-carry laws are having on protest and public assembly across the United States.  

 McIntire is an investigative reporter, author, and editor. In 2003 he joined the New York Times, serving in the New York City Hall bureau before transferring to the investigations unit in 2007. Before that, he was the investigative editor at The Hartford Courant, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting and was a Pulitzer finalist for his investigative reporting on medical malpractice. Covering topics such as presidential campaigns, political corruption, New York City Hall, and international terrorism. McIntire has made a name for himself as a fearless investigative reporter, who reports on important issues which affect the lives of his readers. His book, “Champions Way: Football, Florida and the Lost Soul of College Sports,” was published in 2017, focusing on his investigation of college sports corruption, which earned him the role of finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize. He went on to share the Pulitzer Prize in both 2017 for reporting on Russia’s hidden interference with the U.S. presidential election and in 2022 for reporting on disclosed financial incentives with police traffic stops. McIntire also earned George Polk, Daniel Pearl and Scripps-Howard awards for obtaining and publishing Donald Trump’s long-concealed tax returns alongside his team in 2020. Outside of investigative reporting, McIntire has also dedicated his time to teaching journalism as a professor at New York University since 2004 and served as a 2019 Ferris Visiting Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.  

On this episode of “Story in the Public Square,” McIntire discusses the “corrosive effects” that open carry laws have on our culture and the abrupt increase of armed intimidation at political rallies.  

 “Story in the Public Square” broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. A full listing of the national television distribution is available at this link. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m. ET, and Sundays at 2:30 a.m. & 2:30 p.m. ET on SiriusXM’s popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. “Story in the Public Square” is a partnership between the Pell Center and The Providence Journal. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.