"There is no Founding-era tradition of banning the most popular centerfire rifles in the country — because there couldn't be. The guns didn't exist."

That's the Bruen test working exactly as written. Denver has to produce a historical analogue that physically could not have existed in 1791 — that's not a gap in the record, that's the record. Hard to analogize your way around that at oral argument.

"A broad ruling that common-use arms are categorically protected forecloses most municipal bans. A narrow ruling leaves room for cities like Denver to keep fighting in district court for years."

This is the part that actually matters for what you can own and carry long-term. A narrow ruling means another decade of patchwork enforcement, states and cities drawing their own lines, and guys at the gun counter in Colorado still having different conversations than guys at the gun counter here in Idaho.

If you own an AR or any semi-auto that would fall under Denver's definition — and half the rifles in this club's parking lot would — this case is worth following closer than most people are.

For anyone who's competed, carried, or hunted with a semi-auto rifle: what's the most practical "common use" argument you'd make if you had two minutes in front of a judge?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett