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Down To The Wire @ SCOTUS
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This morning, the Supreme Court announced decisions in three cases, sadly none of which impact the Second Amendment. Meanwhile, gun rights advocates anxiously await decisions in both Wolford v. Lopez and U.S. v. Hemani, not to mention a decision on granting cert in Duncan v. Bonta. But when will they come?
With this morning’s announcements, the Court now has an estimated 23 decisions to announce in cases heard this term. Last year, the term ended June 27th, so that some time in the next three weeks we’ll have a LOT to talk about. |
TX: Texas prosecutors dispute Black teen's self-defense claim in trial over track meet stabbing
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Texas prosecutors told jurors Thursday that a Black teenager committed “provoked and unjustified murder” at a track meet last year when he stabbed a white teenager who shoved him.
Collin County First Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye said during opening statements of Karmelo Anthony’s trial — where the now 19-year-old is accused of using a knife to stab and kill Austin Metcalf on April 2, 2025 — that Anthony told a responding police officer that he is “not alleged” to have stabbed Metcalf, that “I did it.”
Anthony pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and is claiming self-defense. But prosecutors say he baited and taunted Metcalf, 17, into touching him. |
WY: Do Trans People Have “Stand Your Ground” Rights? Wyoming’s Answer May Be “No.”
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Last September, Ríhanna Kelver was standing outside the Crowbar & Grill in Laramie, Wyoming, preparing to start her bartending shift, when she noticed a group of men across the street. One of them was shouting in her direction, and Kelver heard several homophobic and transphobic slurs as he began approaching her. Moments later, according to court testimony and surveillance footage, the man shoved Kelver to the ground hard enough to injure her tailbone.
Kelver responded by drawing a pistol from her bag, chambering a round, and pointing the weapon at the man who had pushed her. She kept the safety on and never fired. The man and his companions retreated.
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NH: Bill that would have given Legislature final say over local gun, weapons policies fails
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Legislators did not advance a gun bill backed by some Republicans that would have limited the ability of state agencies to unilaterally implement their own gun regulations on Thursday. The proposal faced criticism from some gun-rights proponents, including the state’s Attorney General, who warned it could have unintended consequences.
House Bill 609 came to the floor on the last day of the session with numerous provisions aimed at ensuring the Legislature maintains preemptive control over gun and other dangerous weapons regulations in the state. |
Dangerousness, Not Location: § 922(g)(1) May Disarm Drug Traffickers Even Inside the Home
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The Fifth Circuit (Judge Clement, joined by Judges Southwick and Engelhardt) affirmed Squire’s conviction and sentence. Applying the two-step methodology associated with Bruen and United States v. Rahimi, the court held:
Step One: The Second Amendment’s plain text covers the conduct prohibited by § 922(g)(1), so Squire’s possession is presumptively protected.
Step Two: The Government carried its burden by showing a historical tradition of disarming classes of persons perceived as dangerous, which the court deemed “relevantly similar” to disarming convicted drug traffickers.
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NJ: SAF Expands Lawsuit Over New Jersey “Guilt by Association” Gun Confiscations in Bergen County
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If you live in Bergen County, New Jersey, and someone you share a roof with has a record local officials don’t like — or one those officials just suspect might be a problem — you can lose your firearms. Not because you did anything wrong. Not because any New Jersey statute actually authorizes this. Because Bergen County officials decided that’s how they’ll administer state firearms law.
That’s the practice the Second Amendment Foundation is now challenging in federal court — and on June 2, SAF and the New Jersey Firearms Syndicate expanded their lawsuit against Bergen County’s enforcement approach by adding two new plaintiffs to Aliaj v. Fort Lee Police Department, the case SAF originally filed late last year. |
CA: Ninth Circuit Rules Suppressors Are Not Second Amendment Arms
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The Ninth Circuit just handed gun control lawyers another gift, and it came from exactly the kind of case Second Amendment advocates should dread.
In United States v. João Ricardo DeBorba, the court upheld a stack of federal gun convictions against a man who was unlawfully in the United States, had claimed U.S. citizenship on firearm-related paperwork, was subject to domestic violence no-contact orders, and was caught with firearms, ammunition, and an unregistered suppressor.
Bad cases still make law, and this one may do real damage. The most dangerous part of the ruling is not simply that DeBorba lost. Given the facts, that outcome was hardly surprising. |
New Study Shows More Armed Civilians and Less Crime – Who Knew?
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At the core of the ongoing debate between pro- and anti-gun rights activists are statistics. Both sides use crime statistics to support, or try to support, their respective arguments. And on both sides, there are some flaws in the alleged links between the availability of firearms and violent crime rates. The first rule of statistics, after all, is that correlation does not equal causation. Still, as violent crime overall decreases, while the number of armed civilians increases, it becomes all the more difficult for anti-gunners to claim that more guns on the streets lead to higher crime rates. |
Trump’s Justice Department Is Suing Cities and States to Dismantle Gun Laws
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Last December, the Department of Justice opened a new office in its Civil Rights Division called the Second Amendment Section. The goal of the office, as previously reported by Mother Jones and The Trace, is to identify firearm restrictions enacted by cities and states that the administration believes to be unconstitutional—and sue to overturn them.
And sue they have.
In the section’s first six months of operation, the Justice Department has brought cases against police departments in Los Angeles County and the Virgin Islands, the city of Denver, the state of Colorado, and the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. |
Gannett’s USA TODAY blasts guns, Second Amendment rights, sanity
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The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the last newspaper where I worked, regularly provided outstanding journalism until Gannett bought it in 2019.
Before the purchase, we had scores of reporters and dozens of editors. Our print edition could reach nearly 200,000 people on a Sunday.
My editors were smart and community focused. After all, they let me start a blog about guns and gun rights.
When Gannett bought us, everything changed. Massive layoffs and firings became the norm. They also deleted my entire gun blog. |
MN: Distortion of 2nd Amendment creates the need for a Wear Orange Day
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The orange hunting vest hanging in my basement hasn’t been used in years. Alongside hangs another vest, khaki-colored, its ammo pockets still holding shotgun shells, 20-gauge, no. 6. They’ve been there for years, probably since the last time I went pheasant hunting with our golden retriever at the time, Molly.
A new opportunity to wear an orange vest is June 5-7, not long after Memorialay. On National Gun Violence Awareness Day , we remember the nearly 130 people shot and killed by gun violence every day in the United States.
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Nigeria: Nigeria’s Killings Offer Perspective for Policy Change
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Nigeria’s population hovers at about 70% of the U.S. population. For illustrative purposes, Nigeria’s population parallels that of the U.S. population living east of the Mississippi River.
How does Nigeria compare or contrast with the U.S.? In 2024, Nigeria also suffered tens of thousands of homicides. Settling on a precise number of homicides in this populous nation is akin to looking for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. The hope is there, but the final product disappoints. Death toll numbers in Nigeria vary greatly. Consider this Grand Canyon of variant statistics: The statistical number for violent deaths in 2024 ranges from 6,018 (on the lower end) to 614,937 (on the upper end). |
The Major Supreme Court Decisions Happening This Summer
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Gun Possession and Illegal Drug Use
The Case: United States v. Hemani
The Decision: Decision pending
The Details: A man in Texas challenged a federal law that bans gun possession by anyone who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.”
Guns and Private Property
The Case: Wolford v. Lopez
The Decision: Decision pending
The Details: The case centers around Hawaii gun laws that don’t allow concealed guns on private property that is generally open to the public. Gun owners and a local firearms advocacy group argue that the restriction violates the Second Amendment. |
VA: Aiming at safety: Rappahannock considers backyard firing range rules after stray bullet incident
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The Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors is considering proposed regulations for backyard firing ranges following reports of a bullet narrowly missing a neighbor during a recent incident.
The board postponed discussion Monday until next month when the full board is expected to be present.
Supervisors said they particularly wanted input from Piedmont Supervisor Gary Settle, a former superintendent of the Virginia State Police, before deciding whether to send draft ordinance language to the Planning Commission for review — the next step in the zoning amendment process. |
WI: Self-defense claim leads DA to drop case in Milwaukee park shooting
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The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office will not file criminal charges in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man at Center Street Park, citing self-defense.
The shooting happened Saturday, May 31, at the park near 64th and Center streets on the Milwaukee-Wauwatosa border.
"We completed our review of this case this morning and notified the family of the victim that due to issues associated with self-defense, we have determined that we will not be able to meet our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and will not be issuing a criminal charge in this matter," the DA's office said. |
ATF Director Cekada's Concern for Adamiak Misses Larger Point
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“ATF Director Rob Cekada recently acknowledged that the 20-year prison sentence brought by charges his agency presented to the U.S. Department of Justice against Patrick Tate Adamiak was far longer than anything he had ever seen,” Lee “The Gun Writer” Williams writes for the Second Amendment Foundation’s “Investigative Journalism Project. Williams has been a prolific chronicler of the case, having filed over 40 stories to date on Adamiak’s ordeal, one that began with a confidential informant working with ATF to work off charges of his own. |
VA: Residents Race To Buy Popular Guns Before Virginia’s Ban Takes Effect
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Virginia residents are scrambling to purchase modern semiautomatic firearms before the state’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” takes effect, local media reported.
Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the legislation banning the firearms on May 14, drawing immediate legal challenges from pro-Second Amendment organizations. Despite the uncertainty of whether the law would take effect on July 1 due to the litigation, AR-15s and similar firearms that would be covered by the ban were flying off the shelves, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. |
VA: Second Amendment groups score huge federal court win over Virginia governor
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A Virginia judge reaffirmed an injunction blocking the state’s “universal background check” law Wednesday, days after pro-Second Amendment groups sought to hold state officials in contempt when they started enforcing the measure.
Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed HB 1525 into law on April 22 after the General Assembly concurred with her amendments that added an emergency provision directing the Virginia State Police to enforce the law blocked by a permanent injunction issued in October 2025. Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave provided an update Wednesday about the organization’s request for a contempt citation. |
CA: FPC Sues Los Angeles, Inglewood Over Unconstitutional Handgun Rationing Laws
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Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) filed a new federal lawsuit, Lopez v. Los Angeles, challenging local laws in the California cities of Los Angeles and Inglewood that prohibit any person from purchasing more than one handgun in any 30-day period.
The plaintiffs challenging the local laws include FPC, an FPC member, and the California Gun Rights Foundation. The plaintiffs are represented by Chad Flores of Flores Law PLLC and David Bartels of Lawrence Bartels LLP. FPC thanks C.D. Michel, Joshua Robert Dale, and the California Rifle & Pistol Association for their assistance and support.
The complaint was filed on June 3, 2026. |
FL: AG Uthmeier Forces Tradition HOA to Rescind Unlawful Gun Ban
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Last month, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a strong warning to the Tradition Community Association in Port St. Lucie regarding its recently adopted firearms ban in common areas. The AG gave the homeowners’ association (HOA) until June 1 to respond in writing and confirm it would cease enforcement. In a positive development for gun rights advocates, the association quickly agreed not to enforce the ban. |
ATF Proposed Rule Could Reopen Firearm Imports From Several Former Soviet Countries
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In a rare bit of good news from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the agency has proposed rolling back outdated import restrictions that have blocked firearms and ammunition from several former Soviet countries for nearly three decades.
The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on May 6, 2026, would update ATF’s list of “proscribed countries” for import restrictions and bring the agency’s regulations in line with the State Department’s current foreign policy list. More importantly for gun owners, collectors, importers, and the firearms industry, the rule would remove several former Soviet countries from ATF’s automatic denial list for permanent firearm and ammunition imports. |
VA: Virginia Judge Blocks State Police From Enforcing Universal Background Checks
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A Lynchburg judge on June 3, 2026, firmly rejected a request from the Virginia State Police (VSP) and Attorney General Jay Jones to dissolve an existing injunction blocking the enforcement of Universal Background Checks (UBCs) on private firearm sales.
The controversy dates back to the fall of 2025, when a Lynchburg court issued a landmark ruling blocking Virginia’s attempt to impose Universal Background Checks for private firearm transactions. |
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| QUOTES
TO REMEMBER |
| A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks. — Thomas Jefferson, Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318, Foley, Ed., reissued 1967. |
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