More than two years after the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed and expanded its interpretation of the Second Amendment, state and federal courts across the country have struck down multiple restrictive gun laws, while leaving others in a state of uncertainty, Stateline’s Matt Vasilogambros reported. The 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen decision, which set a new standard requiring gun regulations to align with the nation’s historical traditions, has emboldened challenges to gun control laws, delivering key victories for Second Amendment supporters and raising questions about the future of gun control efforts.
Wins for pro-gun groups have mounted in the wake of Bruen. In recent months, courts have struck down high-profile restrictions in traditionally blue states. In October, a federal judge ruled New York’s ban on carrying concealed weapons on private property open to the public unconstitutional (two weeks later an appeals court in the same district ruled the law was constitutional setting up further appeals). This followed a September ruling in Illinois, where a federal court found the state’s ban on concealed firearms on public transit violated the Second Amendment. In Minnesota, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision in July, ruling that age restrictions preventing adults under 21 from carrying handguns were also unconstitutional.
Bill Sack, director of legal operations at the Second Amendment Foundation, described the legal battles as a historic opportunity for gun rights in comments to Stateline.
“The second Bruen came down, there was the starting gun for a sprint, for which we have not stopped yet,” Sack said. “Stuff is ripe for a fresh challenge.”
Sack emphasized that many challenges now center on key questions left unanswered by the Supreme Court’s ruling. These include determining who can own a firearm, what types of weapons and accessories can be restricted and where firearms can legally be carried.
“We are making major inroads,” Sack added. “The arc of history will show that this time period was very good for us and very bad for them.”
However, gun control advocates argue that Sack’s optimism may be premature. Esther Sanchez-Gomez, litigation director at the Giffords Law Center, told Stateline that recent cases have upheld certain restrictions. While a federal judge struck down Illinois’ assault weapons ban earlier this year, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the law to remain in effect pending appeal. Similarly, Maryland’s ban on assault weapons was upheld in August by the 4th Circuit.
“There’s movement on assault weapons,” Sanchez-Gomez explained. “I wouldn’t say that it’s a lost issue universally. Rather, I’d say that there’s a lot of different results coming out and that courts have yet to coalesce.”
The New Standard and Its Fallout
The 2022 Bruen ruling marked a significant shift in Second Amendment jurisprudence, Stateline reported, moving away from a test that considered public safety to one rooted in historical comparisons. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has criticized the standard, saying it forces judges “into service as amateur historians.”
While pro-gun rulings have proliferated, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Rahimi demonstrated the justices’ willingness to allow some restrictions to stand. In that case, the court upheld a federal law banning firearm possession by individuals with domestic violence restraining orders, a ruling celebrated by gun control advocates. Yet, Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted in a concurring opinion that “Second Amendment jurisprudence is in its early innings,” suggesting more cases are on the horizon.
What Lies Ahead
Gun rights advocates remain optimistic, viewing this moment as a chance to dismantle overly restrictive laws on age limits, magazine capacities and arbitrary “sensitive place” designations that impede lawful gun ownership. Some federal circuits, such as the 9th Circuit, have upheld laws restricting guns in bars, parks and polling places, while allowing them in other locations like hospitals and public transit.
Gun control proponents, meanwhile, have grown increasingly concerned. Adam Garber, executive director of CeaseFirePA, told Stateline that while there are risks, there is still room for courts to preserve public safety measures.
“The reality is that there is a real risk to gun safety laws across the nation because of a radical interpretation,” Garber said. “But we also saw courts say, ‘Wait, wait, wait, we’re not saying no gun safety laws are allowed.’”
For now, the future of gun control remains uncertain as lower courts interpret Bruenourt with varying outcomes, more of them leaning toward common sense, logic and freedom. With more than 1,600 cases citing the decision and appeals pending across the country, both sides of the debate agree that the legal battles are far from over. Whether the Supreme Court will step in again to clarify the limits of the Second Amendment remains to be seen, but the stakes could not be higher for preserving Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.
Off topic a little and I’m not going into to much detail how this came to be, however an individual showed some gun photos to an undocumented immigrant. They looked the photo over and noticed they were mostly bolt action and hunting type firearms.
They’re comment was, “No automatics? I can get you an automatic, you know, brrrrp, brrrrp, automatic, for $1,200.”
True story.
You so called “undocumented immigrant” has document from this proper homeland (unless dropped at the border). It is an Illegal Alien/tobedeportee. Stop the PC BS of the MSM.
On topic…Obviously for an easy peasy lynching there needs to be an armed lynch-mob and an unarmed victim. Therefore throughout history Gun Control and a noose walked hand in hand. The hyprocisy nowadays is the sight of a noose sparks outrage drama all while its crickets for mr. noose’s sidekick Gun Control. Bottom line…How the public majority views Gun Control is clearly disconnected from reality.
Yep. Ain’t no fun lynching somebody holding a 12 ga pump. I believe that is why lynching sorta peaked in America shortly after mailorder shotguns became commonly available. Like about 2 weeks after…
“…expanded its interpretation of the Second Amendment…”
Don’t like the term “expanded”. Something more along the lines of “reclaimed” would work better there…
Bruen was peak 2A at the Federal level for the 20th & 21st century late Republic period. It was a flash in the pan and the rifle failed to fire and expell the ball. No powder was in the chamber. Now it is stuck in the barrel and the weapon is worthless until it can be wormed out from the muzzle end.
SCOTUS is not interested in fixing this. Don’t expect them to. They wont. if we want our 2A rights back well have to do it ourselves the hard way.
I don’t know what a Ketanji is but “Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson” has demonstrated she moron. As would be expected of a DEI/Affirmative action quotababy. Ridiculous example of a typical Harvard grad race baiter.
This ^^^^.
Her full name is ‘Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson’. ‘Jackson’ is her married name, her birth name as named by her parents (Johnny and Ellery Brown) is ‘Ketanji Onyika Brown’. She says ‘Ketanji Onyika’ is an African name which means ‘lovely one’ and was based upon a suggestion from her aunt who was a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa.
‘Ketanji Onyika’ … its been claimed to be Luba-Kasai, also known as Cilubà or Tshilubà or simply Luba but more commonly called Tshilubà. Its a tonal Bantu language of Central Africa and a national language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (along with along such languages as Lingala, Swahili, and Kikongo). But its not Luba-Kasai. There are some Luba-Kasai translators on line which will tell you ‘Ketanji Onyika’ means ‘lovely one’, but that translation use by those has only appeared since Jackson became a SCOTUS Justice.
There is a match with the Igbo language in Nigeria with ‘Onyika’, but here again a problem with ‘Ketanji’.
Supposedly, according to Jackson, her aunt sent a book of ‘African baby names’ and suggested the name from that book of ‘Ketanji Onyika’. But one little problem with that is ‘Ketanji’, the ‘ji’ at the end is not common to ‘African baby names’ or African names, or in Nigeria Igbo, the ‘ji’ is more common to India names.
Its likely that ‘Ketanji Onyika’ does not actually mean ‘lovely one’. The closest match for ‘Ketanji’ is ‘Seller of clothes’ and its from India but there is also a combination of Indian (Sanskrit) and African (some dialects) that uses ‘Ketanji’ as a reference to the mineral ‘gold’ as in ‘real’ or ‘genuine’ or ‘pure’ gold. In the Hindu religion ‘Ketanji’ is a unisex sort of ‘fill in the blank meaning’ name, for ‘things’ and has different meanings normally associated with it such as “home”, “pure gold” and “dwelling.”
Ketanji, I hate to break it to you but the ‘lovely one’ is most likely contrived.
The most likely is that ‘Ketanji Onyika’ is ‘contrived’ and is actually of American origin and means “Activist”.
Nikita Tesla hows about we just kick back and let North Korea do the heavy lifting for us?
The courts didn’t win ‘We the People’ the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and continuing to rely on them to preserve that Right has been and continues to be a crap shoot at best. Those who believe that system will protect them from tyranny do so at their own risk.
No people ever voted or sued themselves out of Tyranny. Thirsty Tree is Thirsty.
Nikita,
You are not wrong – and I notice a LOT of lampposts and oak trees in serious need of decoration, and I hear there is a glut of hemp and manila rope on the market, now – perhaps one problem can solve another?
TTAG, can ya get my post out of moderation?
Unfortunately the algorithm written by people that are holding your comments hostage have no humans moderating them.
Currently pending a petition for cert is the Snopes v. Maryland AW ban case. It was set for conference last week but was rescheduled to an as of yet unspecified date. Mark Smith thinks that this strongly suggests that the Court will at some point grant cert, but whether for this term or the next, and/or whether they are awaiting finality of other cases now pending in the circuit courts, is unknown. In this case, the Maryland Circuit Court (3rd DCA) upheld the ban, even though the case had previously been granted cert and was sent back for reconsideration in light of Bruen. Apparently the 3rd didn’t take the hint.
“Apparently the 3rd didn’t take the hint.”
They got the hint. They just said ‘Fu@k You SCOTUS. Were gonna do what we want to do.”
The only kind of hints these clowns will understand recently happened in Syria.
Couldn’t go with Argentina or El Salvador? Have to go with a decade+ drawn out civil war involving all manner of democide including use of chemical weapons and eventual takeover by islamofacists?
from and by.
“The reality is that there is a real risk to gun safety laws across the nation because of a radical interpretation,” Garber said. What is so radical about “shall not be infringed”
“What is so radical about ‘shall not be infringed’ ”
what’s so radical about it is it doesn’t say “shall be infringed” and that’s what upsets them so much.
Get rid of the suppressor registration mandate!
Wont help me, I live in the stupid state of California, but its a dumb law and should go away anyway.
Do as they do, sue sue sue! Use the laws to tie them up more than they do us!
Depending on courts or a piece of paper to preserve Rights is just what ‘They’ want We the People to do.
America lost its freedom when it depends on the government instead of the government depending on America.
No state should need federal assistance to build a highway. No individual should depend on the governments permission to exercise their God given Rights.
Judges in State courts don’t seem to be phased by these decisions. They just ignore them with impunity and affirm obviously unconstitutional laws. Allowing State appellate and Federal Judges who do the same.
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