Supreme Court
The massive bronze doors of the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

From an amicus brief filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, and individual plaintiffs in Bianchi v. Frosh, a challenge to Maryland’s “assault weapons” ban . . .

Circuit court decisions upholding rifle bans like those in this this case rely on untenable reasoning. The Fourth Circuit’s rule, at issue here, would authorize prohibiting the most common arms of the colonial and Founding periods: the all-in-one American long gun that was made for hunting, personal defense, and militia use.

The Seventh Circuit purported to favor arms like those of the Founding Era. Yet the court upheld a ban on self-loading firearms, a type that preceded the Second Amendment by a century-and-a-half.

The Second Circuit employed an especially unfavorable version of intermediate scrutiny that considers only the government’s evidence, and that does not consider less restrictive alternatives. The First Circuit second-guessed law-abiding citizens’ personal choices of common defensive arms.

All four of this Court’s Second Amendment precedents on arms bans—Heller, McDonald, Caetano, and Miller—eschewed means-ends balancing. This Court’s approach has always been categorial.

The rifles at issue here are “in common use,” as lower courts have acknowledged. “Common use” is not determined by how often a gun is fired in self-defense. “Common use” encompasses all lawful uses, including hunting and self-defense. Arms bans do not become constitutional if they slice protected classes of arms into smaller subclasses. Dick Heller’s 9-shot .22 caliber revolver was not particularly common, but handguns are very common.

— David Kopel in Maryland Rifle Ban in the Supreme Court

44 COMMENTS

  1. Friendly reminder:

    Progressives want what they want and many/most ardent Progressives will employ any means necessary to get what they want.

    Never ever forget that Progressive verbal claims are almost universally designed to manipulate their audience on an emotional level in a desperate attempt to achieve audience support.

    Note that their emotional manipulation happens in one of three way:
    — resonate with their audience (feel good unrelated to facts/reality)
    — shame their audience
    — coerce their audience

    Almost entirely absent from Progressive claims: facts, reasoning, and teaching.

    • Common Use is nowhere in the Second Amendment and serves only to further muddy the waters. It’s another bone for those who worship the courts to chase around.

      Why not base slavery on common use? A plantation owner could argue common use based on the need for a number of slaves to work as cooks, cleaners and cotton pickers. Without slaves the plantation would fall in disrepair and crops would rot. A plantation owner should be entitled by law to own enough slaves that were in common use to maintain the plantation in a fit and proper manner I do declare…gentlemen.

      Talk concerning a centuries old document called the Constitution Of The United States must include everything throughout history that has confirmed the need to protect and defend The Second Amendment. And what lies between the beginning and today is a long documented history of Gun Control and the racism and genocide that came with it and comes with it no matter what the time is.

      Time spent analyzing “common use” instead of exposing the rot surrounding Gun Control is time spent keeping the Truth About Gun Control and its rot out of sight and out of mind just like sneaky Gun Control zealots want it to.

    • Part of this is very easy to understand.

      There are people that actually believe the cops and indeed ANY armed white male uses blacks as target practice. This of course is a lie and is perpetuated through manipulation. But I would ask everyone (on both sides) to consider this:

      The use of the term “sporting rifle”
      Which is often an AR
      AR’s are said to be “Assault Rifles”
      White male conservatives love their AR’s

      Consequently,
      AR15’s are racist and must be banned (in the eyes of the general public – mainly on the left). Just like a license to conceal carry is misinterpreted as a license to kill (like James Bond – as a Hollywood based manipulation).

      • That’s cuz they are easily manipulated emotionally and many have had their critical thinking apparatus shorted out by the public school system. Being a WMC I do love an AR, but I likes me AK’s even mo bettah!

    • And when you’re bright enough to see through their attempted emotional manipulation they fall back to plan B; call you a racist, white supremacist, Q-anon seditionist and try to get you silenced.

      • Gov. Le Petomane,

        You are correct and simply described my third category of emotional manipulation (coercion) in more detail.

        • Uncommon,

          You should also note, if you are looking to enlighten, that the three traits you mentioned are feminine traits of manipulation.

    • avatar Geoff "A day without an apparently brain-damaged mentally-ill demented troll is like a day of warm sunshine" PR

      {Leftist Scum tricks}

      “— shame their audience
      — coerce their audience”

      There is an approaching ‘tipping point’ where that angle simply won’t work any more.

      (Most) people have an element of compassion to them.

      But if they begin to fell like they are being used, taken advantage of, that compassion begins to evaporate.

      Take this Super Bowl commercial as a case in point :

      EDIT – It seems Visa is so proud of the blow-back they are getting comparing being black as difficult as getting cancer or being an amputee they yanked it from YouTube. Other places still have it like this one :

      https://www.ispot.tv/ad/q45_/visa-powering-participation-starting-line

      • Excellent observation!
        Yes, the Communist (aka:Marxist’s, Socialists and Democrats) fill the air with all manner of lies and distortions in an attempt to social engineer peoples thinking.

  2. Oh yeah, you people in California guess what.

    The LA county board of supervisors has voted to fire 400 unvaccinated officers/employees and the firings have started. The vote was 4-0 with one abstaining. Fired because they would not get vaccinated.

    and “LA sheriff calls board vote to fire 400 unvaccinated employees a ‘suicide pact,’ cites rising murder rate”

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/02/09/la-sheriff-calls-board-vote-to-fire-400-unvaccinated-employees-a-suicide-pact-cites-rising-murder-rate-1199082/

    • Almost as stupid as Washington state. They fired half their snow plow drivers for not being vaccinated, then when one of the counties offered to plow the state routes because they had plenty of drivers the state declined because the county didn’t have a vaccine mandate for snow plow drivers. At least the police actually come in contact with other people, how are you going to spread disease sitting in a truck all by yourself? 2020 will go down in history as the year the whole world went full retard. No sign yet of a reversal.

      • avatar Geoff "A day without an apparently brain-damaged mentally-ill demented troll is like a day of warm sunshine" PR

        “2020 will go down in history as the year the whole world went full retard. No sign yet of a reversal.”

        Yet.

        I think it will come, and not too far in the future. People don’t mind being a bit accommodating, but when asked to break their backs bending over, will finally say “Enough”….

      • No the whole world didn’t. Just your woke, left wing, croc wearing, pajama boy, gun grabbing, socialist/communist, progressives.

    • LA sheriff calls board vote to fire 400 unvaccinated employees a ‘suicide pact,’ cites rising murder rate

      Something like 20 years ago an acquaintance of mine called the Far Left a “death cult”–referring to the Far Left’s ardent interest and support of “assisted suicide” and killing babies in the womb (a.k.a. “abortion”) in addition to other “lifestyles” which are hugely counterproductive to human life. This “suicide pact” is just a more recent example of the Far Left “death cult” mentality.

    • L A County.. hey isn’t that the place where some higher up in the county began making Mother May I Cards (to carry your own deefensvei weapon on your person ) “availble” to “certai speshul peelul” who had done things like grease their palms, contribute to their reelectiin campaign funds, etc? Oh wait, maybe I am getting LA County cofused with Sant Clara County,aabout three hundred miles further up the same road.

  3. HHHmmm
    An article specifically about what defines what.

    Let’s take about what defines what. When we talk about “sporting rifles” and “large capacity magazines”, people WILL get confused about such generic terms as “bullet buttons” things that are subject to interpretation just like “High Definition” and “High Speed Internet”. No one understand that when most gun owners in this country have atleast one or two AR15’s then THAT fact in itself makes it “common use”. Just like the idea that most of the people that hunt own atleast one bolt action rifle (making them “common use”). Most criminals use handguns making them common use. Shotguns are quite often used for home defense making them common use.

    You CANNOT define such specific things using these kinds of generic terms and phrases and expect everyone to understand it all. Wether we are talking about cops and judges or criminals and law abiding citizens. We are trying to convince many on the left that there is a meaning to “…SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED” while barely even touching on the very important distinction between state constitutions vs. the US Constitution.

    AR15’s are NOT assault rifles but the left thinks they are because of all this craziness. In all this discussion of banning high capacity magazines, the only focus seems to be on 30 and 10 rounders while completely disregarding 100 round drums. The left uses this to set legal restrictions to a maximum capacity of ten rounds but completely and conveniently forgets that just ONE bullet can kill. People don’t even understand that these very same guns DO NOT use clips. They use magazines. This distinction gets lost because of the over extensive use of such generic language.

    This is precisely what the story of Babel was all about. There is a point reached where no one understand what anyone else is talking about or saying.

    • The Brady group was originally National Council to Control Handguns, then changed to Handgun Control, Inc. When they got pushback on that they decided demonizing certain weapons as “assault weapons” would be the low hanging fruit to pass a ban, along with other things like “cop killer bullets”, “armor piercing bullets,” undetectable plastic guns, Saturday night specials, weapons of war, high capacity magazines, unregistered guns, gun violence, gun safety, underage gun owners, silencers and machine guns, etc.

      They succeed when they can carve off and attack just one small piece, a bump stock here, a pistol brace there, an imported non-sporting rifle, an 80% receiver, oooo, a ghost gun! I mean no good and decent person would buy a ghost gun right? Definitely should ban those.

      Each ban sets precedent, if all “arms” are protected then there is no discussion, but if only certain things are safe and protected, then the unsafe, dangerous things can be restricted. I mean, smart guns are safer, right, so we can ban unsmart weapons.

      • Exactly. But BOTH sides contribute to this. Although most of it does come from left. The only real way to deal with any of this properly is through education and that must start when people are young. The left knows this and the use that fact with their strangle hold on the American education system. We can all talk about voting for republicans and against Democrats but if we don’t have our children learning the truth when they are in school then it all becomes pointless. This is why getting rid of CRT must happen. The lies and hate it teaches is what will bring the nation down. That must happen at a local level with state and federal support. It all starts there.

    • avatar Geoff "A day without an apparently brain-damaged mentally-ill demented troll is like a day of warm sunshine" PR

      “…things that are subject to interpretation just like “High Definition” and “High Speed Internet”.

      From the late 1970s – A stupid “Digital Ready!” sticker on a pair of speakers or headphones suddenly made them into something they never were in the first place…

    • and the banners of our commonly held and used stuff USE the confusion of Babel as a desired feature, and enhance it at every turn, certainly the confusioin is not a “bug”. I remember some of my uncles and cousins having M 1903 Springfields rifles chambered in the VERY powerful .30/06 (now called 7.62 x 59, just to help the confusio factor). These rounds in the hands of someone who knows very well what he is about can be used to devastating effect at ranges up to a mile, even more. I have seen it. Tjese rifles were originally built as “assault weapons” and sent by the shiplod to the Euroepan Theatre for our Alies to be used to kill enough of the Germans to make the war end. It worked.
      in the Second German War a different rifle using precisely the same cartridge, featuring an eight round en bloc clip, was the “main battle rofle”, or “assault weapon” of that era. I know a guy a ling haul trucker who drives into and through every one of the Lower Forty Eight states with his rig. He cannot take the risk of having a handgun along, as too many states (most notably NY MD MA NJ and CA would steal his weapon and then his truck if caught with one of them. SO he carries his M 1 Garand in the cab. He’s checked, it is fully legal in every state. He keeps it empty, bolt locked back, safety off. He also keeps a few clips staged in readily accessible but not obvious places. He can have that weapon rady to fire in aobut two seconds.

      that rifle is still “in common use”. MIllions of them were made, and hundreds of thousands are still in the hands of members of the gernal public. They are, at the same time, VERY effecgive Main Battle Rifles. My BAR in the same chambering COULD also be considered an “assault weapon” as it is a semiatuoatmic rifle using a military cartridge. And it is NOT so commo as the others mentioned above. Yet every bit as “effective” as any of the others.

      What is hilarious is that the dreaded”assault rifle” so “hated” by poiticians and Brady Brats uses the feeble (by comparison) 5.56/.223 round. It is SO feeble only one or two states allow its use for huting of deer.. and one of the two that do allow it have ONLY very small deer, thus that round is reasonbly capable of quicky downing deer. THIS is a “high powered rifle”? These guys are either wilfully perjuring themseves, or as feeble minded as the feeble .223 round is.

      Just as with the mug nappies and shots: the issue is NOT the mug nappies/shots, It is CONTROL. Here the issue is NOT about some particular type fo firearm it is about gettom SOME “off the streets” (as if such rifles gathered, formed up into columns, march temselves down the street, and systematically despatch innocent citizens on a whim. Delusional idiots who think we are easiy tricked.
      Well, consider the “results” of New Ypork state’s “assault weapons” ban/registration. Last fgures I saw had the compliance rate in the state at very close to three percent. What a joke. But those rifles ARE “out there” and can be uncovere, taken outof hiding and depoyed should “the need” ever arise. how far will they push this before that time comes? I HOPE we do not have to find out.

  4. It is not easy playing wordsmith games with Libs/Leftists/Socialists/Authoritarians/Dimwitocrats (apologies for the redundancy). Word games are what keeps them focused, enthused, galvanized, gives them a sense of purpose.

    Libs/Leftists/Socialists/Authoritarians/Dimwitocrats will answer the question, “Why do you work so hard to twist words and meanings, the general response will be, ‘Why not, its fun?’ ”

    The world is divided into unequal halves: those who are always looking to get away with something, and those who want to be left alone to live their lives.

  5. It just makes no sense. If, in fact, lib/progressive/democrats seriously wanted to make an impact on crime, they would be targeting handguns. In the grand scheme of things, “assault weapons” are nothing more than a little bit of noise in the signal. Criminals overwhelmingly opt for small, compact, easily concealable handguns, rather than long guns of any type.

    I don’t want to see hoplophobes winning any victories at all, but they would get more mileage out of targeting handguns.

    • Paul, and what is your problem with “handguns?” Is it that they provide a measure of self defense against your criminal friends?

      • I don’t recall saying that handguns are a problem. I do recall pointing out the stupidity of regulating scary black guns with tactical features for the sake of eliminating crime.

        • Paul, EXCUSE ME? But what is this?

          Criminals overwhelmingly opt for small, compact, easily concealable handguns, rather than long guns of any type.

          I don’t want to see hoplophobes winning any victories at all, but they would get more mileage out of targeting handguns.

          It might be a GOOD IDEA of you think before you type?

        • Walter, he DID and DOES think before he types. RAD him again. He is NOT advocating that the banners DO go after handguns, just pointing out the obvious FACT that they are not tragetting the main tool of choise of the lawless. He IS correct, it is YUO who assume he favours their going after handguns, but he never says that.

          The reason they are going after “assault weapons’ is that they have been falsely painted by the banners and their media hack accomplices as evil by nature” and thus easily manipulated in the minds of the public, perticulalry the media hacks. Once they get the “assault weapons’ “off the streets”, in America theor next target ,already sharply in vew WILL BE handguns of all sorts, likely starting with emiauto pistols, with revolvers close behind them. It is an existential battle, incrementally prosecuted. Until WE “honk our honrs” in large enough numbers to be effective in awakening the quiet classes.

      • Walter E. Beverly III,

        Paul is not advancing fear of any general class of firearm. Rather, Paul is highlighting a Far Left (on the political spectrum) GIANT LIE that they are trying to “save lives”.

        That GIANT LIE is obvious if you realize that criminals use handguns to murder their victims about 40 times more often than rifles (which means the Far Left should be trying to ban handguns if they are truly trying to “save lives”).

        • uncommon, Well, if that is his intent, he is doing in a very poor manner. He fails miserable to tell us what you are alleging. To put it BLUNTLY, he sounds wishy washy.

    • “In the grand scheme of things, “assault weapons” are nothing more than a little bit of noise in the signal.”

      You gotta think this through. In the minds of gun grabbers, handguns are the choice of criminals/gangs. (and handguns are falling into to the category of “assault weapons” in a number of states). AR/AK/semi-automatic rifles are far more scary, because they hav 100 round clipazines, and can fire a thousand rounds per second. The “weapons of war” are most likely to be used in shooting up schools and malls; places where “nice people” unwittingly mingle with crazies who have “assault weapons”, but look so normal that “nice people” can’t protect themselves by avoiding “nice places”.

    • ‘If, in fact, lib/progressive/democrats seriously wanted to make an impact on crime…’

      LOL. a) handguns will be next if they ever get their way with ‘assault rifles’, b) their hard on for ‘assault rifles’ is over the fact that they are far more useful against military and militarized civilian police in the event of an armed insurrection than are handguns. The lib/progressive/democrats don’t give a f@#k about crime (unless it happens in their gated communities), what they care about is power and forget the Constitution, the only real restraint on their power is an armed populous.

    • avatar Geoff "A day without an apparently brain-damaged mentally-ill demented troll is like a day of warm sunshine" PR

      “In the grand scheme of things, “assault weapons” are nothing more than a little bit of noise in the signal.”

      It’s critical to go after them, because they will be what is needed if they make their final ‘push’…

    • I agree. None of this makes sense. It is all just noise. The problem is that too many people believe this craziness just like there are plenty of people that truly believe what happened on Jan6 was an insurrection and for no reason at all other than it’s what Pelosi said it was.

      “If, in fact, lib/progressive/democrats seriously wanted to make an impact on crime, they would be targeting handguns.”

      They have targeted handguns. Many times. An example of this is the FN57. The idea was to ban it based on the suggestion that it’s something that cop killing cartels and drug dealing gangs used. That no law abiding gun owner would want or need anything to do with it. Regardless of how completely absurd it all was. The so-called Saturday Night Special was a great example of this low IQ idiocy. There are many more.

  6. And again, I ask any of the gun control crowd to provide some verifiable evidence that any of their current restrictions, back ground checks, bans, or other schemes have prevented anyone from getting a gun or from doing something horrible with that gun. Or at least demonstrate how any of these proposed regulations, restrictions, license schemes, permits, bans, magazine limits, etc. will actually stop anyone from committing a violent crime.

    • There is not one documented case where gun-control laws/regulations stopped anyone from trying to commit a violent crime.

      There is not one documented case where gun-control laws/regulations stopped an in-progress violent crime.

      There is not one documented case where gun-control laws/regulations stopped injury or death to the victims of an in-progress violent crime.

      But…. There are plenty of documented cases where defensive gun use:

      1. has stopped someone from trying to commit a violent crime.

      2. has stopped an in-progress crime (and sometimes stopped the crime actions from beginning).

      3. has stopped injury or death to the victims of an in-progress violent crime.

  7. “The Constitution means what we say it means.”
    Rep. James E. Clyburn
    6th District, South Carolina

  8. Optics is now the name of the game. But even there, remember when that word referred to things like binoculars and riflescopes?

  9. This country was founded on having weapons and defending one’s self family or business, and of course country from foreign or domestic!

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