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SCOTUS Gun Watch
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New Petitions. The Court received nine new cert petitions on firearms law issues in the last week. They are: six challenges to the 922(g)(1) (federal felon-in-possession ban) and one to a state equivalent, one to 18 U.S.C. § 922(n), and one to 922(g)(5) (restrictions on possession by immigrants).
Upcoming Conferences. The Court’s next conference is scheduled for next Monday, September 28th, right before OT2026 formally begins. At that conference, the Justices presently plan to discuss 57 firearms-related cases: [Ed.: list follows] |
OH: Trial Court Not Mistaken When Instructing Jury on Self-Defense
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The Supreme Court of Ohio today upheld the conviction of a Belmont County man who struck a neighbor’s home with a stray bullet while he was shooting at another man.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that the trial court did not make a mistake when it omitted an instruction about transferred intent from its explanation to the jury that Timothy Bradley was claiming self-defense against one count of felonious assault and two counts of discharging a firearm into a habitation without privilege to do so. The jury acquitted Bradley of the felonious assault charge for shooting and wounding Zachary Burch during the 2024 argument. However, the jury found him guilty of the charges for shooting into the homes across the street. |
MN: DOJ Sues Minnesota Over Gun Permit-to-Purchase Laws and Waiting Periods
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On September 24, the Department of Justice took a huge step that could have major repercussions for gun control. The DOJ filed a lawsuit saying Minnesota’s firearm purchase permit and 30-day waiting period are unconstitutional.
Daniel Rosen, the U.S. Attorney General for the District of Minnesota, said:
“We are committed to protecting Minnesotans’ right to purchase firearms and we will not tolerate procedures that are wielded in a way that impairs that right.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said: |
CO: FPC Sues Colorado and Denver to Restore Carry Rights of Non-Residents
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Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that it filed a new federal lawsuit challenging Colorado and Denver laws that combine to deny peaceable residents of 15 states and the District of Columbia any lawful means to carry a handgun for self-defense while in Denver. The complaint for Hoffman v. City and County of Denver can be viewed here.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of FPC and FPC member Gene Hoffman, a California resident. Hoffman regularly travels to Denver, is legally eligible to possess firearms, holds a carry permit, and would carry a handgun for lawful self-defense there but for the challenged laws. |
27 States Urge Supreme Court to Protect Second Amendment Rights
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Republican Attorneys General Kris Kobach and Jonathan Skrmetti, along with 25 other states, are leading an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the Second Amendment and reject bans on AR-15 platform rifles and other commonly owned semiautomatic rifles.
The brief was filed in Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, two cases before the Supreme Court concerning state and local restrictions on semiautomatic rifles.
Oral arguments are scheduled for December 2, 2026. |
SAF Announces Don Kilmer As 2026 Golden Bowtie Award Winner
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The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) honored its third recipient of the Golden Bowtie Award at this year’s Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) in Dallas. This year’s award was presented to longtime Second Amendment advocate and litigator Don Kilmer.
Recipients of the Golden Bowtie are people and/or organizations who have made significant contributions of time, talent and treasure to SAF and its mission. |
Women for Gun Rights Celebrates Landmark National Summit in Washington, D.C.
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Women for Gun Rights celebrated a major milestone with its successful Inaugural 2026 National Summit, bringing together more than 120 attendees for three days of celebration, training and advocacy in the nation's capital. Featuring a Gala, Capitol rally and White House briefing, the Summit showcased the organization's growing voice and equipped advocates to carry that momentum into their home states.
Among the Summit's most powerful moments were public recitations of the Second Amendment at Union Station, the White House and the U.S. Capitol. |
The Supreme Court’s two decades of constitutional change
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Lawyers tend to internalize the constitutional law that existed when they attended law school. Consider a lawyer who took the course in the spring of 2005, a few months before the Rehnquist court adjourned for the last time. That lawyer learned that the Constitution protected a right to abortion, that a university could consider an applicant’s race to assemble a diverse class, .... None of these four propositions accurately state the law today. That lawyer probably also learned nothing about the Second Amendment, which the court had not interpreted since United States v. Miller in 1939. Yet since District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, the court has decided six major Second Amendment cases. |
CT: Judge Puts the Brakes on Connecticut Glock Ban
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A federal judge granted Glock, Shadow Systems, and a gun industry trade group a preliminary injunction blocking Connecticut's looming ban on such pistols as "likely unconstitutional."
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U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley sided with the gun companies and the National Shooting Sports Foundation against the state, saying plainly that “… the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have met their burden of establishing a likelihood of success on the merits. The statute is presumptively unconstitutional, and Defendants have not met their burden of demonstrating that the statute is consistent with our nation’s history of firearms regulation." |
Malcolm Gladwell rethinks gun violence in ‘The American Way of Killing’
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The one thing you need to know before you start is this: author Malcolm Gladwell’s work here is calm, considerate and balanced. You may notice nuances, but this book isn’t overtly pro-gun control, nor does Gladwell seem against it. Instead, he methodically shows readers the mistakes we make in our thought-processes, how we misunderstand laws and where collective thinking can be more effective in an overall argument. In many ways, the two sides, pro- and against, aren’t as divergent as we might think we are, especially when presented with commonsensical, important and shocking statistics that could flip your understanding of the facts. |
WI: Wisconsin’s 2026 Elections Bring Gun Control Back Into Focus
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Wisconsin’s unresolved gun control debates return to the spotlight as the Nov. 3rd election creeps closer. As legislative candidates are surveyed on Second Amendment issues, the state’s open race for governor and legislative elections are all drawing attention due to candidates’ competing views on lawfully exercising the Second Amendment, the firearm industry, background checks and firearm possession altogether.
The stakes extend beyond campaign positions. Wisconsin’s next governor and legislature will determine which proposals receive consideration in 2027, with serious implications for gun owners, firearm retailers, manufacturers and shooting ranges. |
SAF Files Brief Urging Supreme Court to Reject Liability for Firearms Advertising
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The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed an amicus brief with the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the U.S. Supreme Court case Daniel Defense v. Lowy supporting petitioners' request for review of a Fourth Circuit decision.
The plaintiffs in the case seek to hold lawful firearms manufacturers liable for a third party's crime on the theory that advertisements using military, patriotic, or law-enforcement themes promoted a "warrior mentality" and appealed to "militaristic fantasies." The plaintiffs have never so much as proven the suspect in the crime even saw the ads in question, let alone that he was influenced by them to commit a heinous crime. |
Gun rights groups want Supreme Court to shoot down suit against AR-15 manufacturer over ads
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“That theory mistakes a centuries-old form of firearms advertising for a causal connection to a particular crime,” the groups said in the brief. “Military themes have long accompanied civilian firearms commerce appropriately so, since the Second Amendment itself declares the necessity of the militia.”
“The exercise of the right to keep and bear arms has always had a synergistic relationship with military use of arms,” the groups continued. “In the colonial and Founding eras, militiamen had to provide their own arms, suitable for military use.” |
ME: SAF, NRA Urge SCOTUS To Hear Challenge To State’s 3-Day Waiting Period
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Two major gun-rights groups have filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to Maine’s 72-hour waiting period for the transfer of a firearm after purchase.
The brief, filed on September 22 in the case Beckwith v. Frey, supports the petitioners’ request for the high court to review an earlier 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the Pine Tree State’s waiting period law. |
NJ: SAF Challenges New Jersey Gun Permit Denial Over Protected Speech
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A New Jersey permit denial raises serious First Amendment concerns. Post-Bruen applicants still deal with subjective standards. The Second Amendment Foundation has filed an amicus in a peculiar denial case.
A New Jersey man who has been twice denied a New Jersey firearm purchaser identification card reapplied a third time. The applicant was denied each time under an illegal subjective standard. The case, In the Matter of the Gun Permit Appeal of A.A.R, was decided in the New Jersey Superior Court in the Appellate Division. A.A.R. has appealed the decision that upheld his denial to the New Jersey Supreme Court. The Second Amendment Foundation has filed an amicus brief in support of A.A.R.’s appeal. |
FL: Armed home invasion in Florida backfires on suspects as gun-toting victim shoots 1, fights the other
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An armed home invasion in Florida backfired last week as a man renting a Airbnb shot one suspected intruder and fought the other.
Fort Lauderdale Police officers responded to the scene near Northwest 19th Avenue and Eighth Street around 6 p.m. Thursday, WSVN-TV reported.
Two males were carrying guns when they broke into the home while the renter was inside, investigators told the station, adding that the renter tried to fight off the perpetrators and shot one of them in the torso in what cops are calling an act of self-defense. |
CT: Looney, Duff Respond to Ruling Blocking Connecticut’s Convertible Pistol Law
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“A switch turns a handgun into a machine gun. That’s not a Second Amendment right. We’ll keep fighting in court to keep our communities and police officers safe from dangerous and deadly overpowered firearms. A Trump-appointed judge’s tortured interpretation of the Second Amendment won’t deter us from our sworn constitutional responsibility to protect our citizens.”
-Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) responding responding [sic] to Judge Kari Dooley’s preliminary injunction blocking Public Act 26-41. |
CA: Newsom signs new gun control laws, including one requiring owners to take a 4-hour class
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Have a gun? You’re going to need to take another safety class after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills Saturday that are a boon to gun control advocates and anathema to Second Amendment groups.
The law, Senate Bill 948, would apply to current residents with newly purchased guns starting in 2029. The class would need to be at least four hours long. Starting in 2028, people moving to California with guns would need to obtain a firearm safety certificate within 180 days of arrival. Berkeley Democratic Sen. Jesse Arreguín wrote the legislation. |
CT: Federal judge blocks Connecticut ‘convertible pistol’ ban
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A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the implementation of the key section of a new Connecticut law intended to ban the sale of so-called “convertible pistols.”
The law was passed along party lines in the legislature earlier this year after a protracted standoff in the State Senate. It was set to go into force on Thursday. Glock sued the state government to stop the law from taking effect, and the Wednesday ruling provides the gun manufacturer with a preliminary victory. |
NY: Judge Tosses Blue State’s Carry Ban — But It Gets Worse For New York
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“As a result, it is difficult for the Court to logically conclude that the CCIA is complying with the Supreme Court’s pronouncement that a state law cannot ban firearm carriage ‘too broadly’ so that it ‘would eviscerate the general right to publicly carry arms for self-defense,’ when the CCIA bans concealed carry in so many discrete locations that together the bans constitute a ban that exists nearly everywhere,” Suddaby continued.
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Suddaby upheld other restrictions, but noted that he believed the restrictions would likely fail a review by the Supreme Court. |
DOJ: Handgun Ban for 18-20-year-olds Is Unconstitutional, Unenforceable
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In a small victory for the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a memo last week declaring that a federal ban on selling handguns to 18-20-year-olds is unconstitutional and unenforceable.
Since the enactment of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, federal law has prohibited federally licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to adults younger than 21. The DOJ’s September 18 memo, authored by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, who leads the Office of Legal Counsel, declared that “[18 U.S.C.] sections 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) are presumptively unconstitutional.” |
CA: Vietnam Vet Shoots Burglar Where Sun Don’t Shine
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A suspected burglar was shot in a rather embarrassing part of the anatomy during a Sunday burglary that went bad.
The home in San Francisco, California, the burglar selected was occupied by a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran, who was awakened at around 5:00 a.m. local time by noises on the floor below, according to CBS Bay Area. After a physical confrontation, the Vietnam veteran who declined to be named, fired one shot that hit the burglar in the buttocks. |
Feds Hold 1.4-Billion-Gun Records on Americans, Congressman Asks Trump to Protect Privacy
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“No one in their right mind can look at ATF’s digital, searchable 1.4 billion record database of firearm transactions and tell me that isn’t a gun registry,” says the Gun Owners of America’s Federal Affairs Director. The DOJ has been asked to look into use of the ATF’s database, and now Second Amendment advocates are knocking on Trump’s door.
Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Tex., sent a letter on Tuesday to President Donald Trump urging action on a centralized registry of guns and gun owners that, according to Gun Owners of America (GOA), violates multiple federal statutes. |
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