SCOTUS Holds the Blade That Could Kill State Gun Grabs

SCOTUSblog constitutional litigation analyst Haley Proctor published a deep-dive this week breaking down the three critical axes of Second Amendment jurisprudence: who the government can disarm, what weapons it can ban, and where it can prohibit carry. Every one of those questions remains a live battleground in federal courts right now.

After *Bruen* (2022) torched the old interest-balancing test and *Rahimi* (2024) clawed at some of that ground, lower courts remain a contradictory mess. Anti-gun judges in blue-circuit courts exploit every ambiguity they can find to keep disarming law-abiding Americans.

The 'who' question carries the sharpest edge. Challenges to felon-in-possession laws, domestic violence firearm bans, and prohibitions on marijuana users are all climbing the appellate ladder. The Court must eventually draw a clear line — and *Bruen*'s history-and-tradition test makes blanket categorical bans extremely difficult to justify.

On 'what,' assault weapon bans and magazine restrictions pushed by power-hungry governors like Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker face an increasingly hostile legal environment. The Seventh and Fourth Circuits have issued conflicting rulings on AR-15-style rifles. The Supreme Court cannot dodge this forever.

The 'where' fight hits closest to home for concealed carriers. Anti-gun city governments weaponized sensitive-place carve-outs to nullify carry permits in practice. New York, New Jersey, and California lawmakers responded to *Bruen* by legislating sensitive places so broadly that almost nowhere remains legal to carry — a deliberate constitutional end-run that deserves to get torched by the Court.

Acting AG Todd Blanche has a clear opportunity. The DOJ should aggressively file amicus briefs supporting gun owners in every one of these circuit fights — not sit on its hands while blue-state AGs coordinate to strangle the Second Amendment through litigation.

The constitutional architecture is sound. The Court just needs the courage to enforce it.

Watch these cases closely, get active with your state firearms association, and make sure every anti-gun politician who built a career on disarming you pays for it at the ballot box.