Firearms News Archive

The Supreme Court is taking a hard look at whether states must include religious schools in universal pre-K funding. The direct issue is religious liberty, but the doctrinal current matters to Second Amendment litigants watching how the Court treats enumerated rights.

Florida and Utah signed campus carry expansions into law this year. New Hampshire is next up, with a Senate hearing scheduled on HB1793. Louisiana withdrew its bill when student sponsors couldn't testify — but the sponsor says it's coming back. The trend line is clear.

Peter Magyar won Hungary's April 2026 elections in a landslide and immediately outlined plans to rewrite the constitution and re-anchor the country in Europe. After 16 years of Viktor Orbán's nationalist rule, the shift is being watched across the West. Whether Magyar can actually deliver constitutional reform depends on whether he holds a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

A proposed federal rule would automatically register all men aged 18–26 for the draft, no action required. The 1918 Supreme Court case that upheld conscription relied on sovereignty theory rather than founding-era history—exactly the kind of reasoning the Roberts court has repeatedly rejected in other contexts. The constitutional question has never been properly settled.

Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader merged into a 3,100-lawyer, $3.6 billion firm. It won't change your range day — but law firm consolidation shapes who influences federal firearms regulation, and the trend is accelerating.

Canada's Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program completed its first phase with 67,000 firearms declared by over 37,000 gun owners, including 1,702 in Nova Scotia. The program is voluntary, but the October 2026 deadline carries real legal consequences. Opposition is organized and holding rallies nationwide.

Canada's federal gun buyback program closed its declaration window with fewer than half the expected firearms turned in nationwide. The Northwest Territories declared just 81 guns — and nobody can clearly say who enforces the October 30 hard deadline in the territory. A political science professor who studies Canadian gun culture thinks Ottawa mostly wants this over with.

California's SB 1004 would require ICE agents and law enforcement to remove masks during operations, revising a law a federal judge blocked in February. The bill cleared committee 5-1. The court that blocked the original act also found federal officers can work without masks — which supporters are treating as a green light.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a gun-control package Tuesday and sent an assault-firearms ban back to lawmakers with amendments that Republicans say could cover nearly every common semi-automatic in the state. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division has already threatened to sue if any version of the ban takes effect, citing Second Amendment protections for commonly owned firearms. The amended bill now returns to the General Assembly for a final vote.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed legislation joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, directing the state's 13 electoral votes to the national popular vote winner rather than Virginia's. The compact now sits at 222 electoral votes, still 48 short of the 270 needed to activate. Spanberger also signed an assault weapons ban the same day.

SCOTUS declined to hear a challenge to Illinois' ban on concealed carry in public transit, leaving the Seventh Circuit's ruling intact. Four permit holders had argued the ban violated their Second Amendment rights under the Bruen standard. The decision doesn't resolve the broader 'sensitive places' legal debate — it just postpones it.

Minnesota's attorney general and two state legislators introduced a bill to ban ghost guns statewide — covering possession, manufacture, sale, and even distributing 3D-print design files. The 237% rise in traced unserialized firearms is driving the push. The bill's file-distribution prohibition is the sharpest legal edge to watch.

New York agreed to permanently stop enforcing the provision of its Concealed Carry Improvement Act that required gun permit applicants to submit three years of social media account history. Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation secured the injunction through federal court in the ongoing Antonyuk v. James litigation. The broader challenge to New York's carry restrictions continues.

Connecticut's Judiciary Committee voted 24-12 along party lines to advance a ban on pistols easily converted to automatic fire. Republicans called it a Second Amendment violation. The bill heads to the full legislature, and legal challenges are likely if it passes.

The Firearms Policy Coalition filed a motion for summary judgment on March 27 challenging New York's ban on civilian body armor purchases. The FPC argues the law cannot survive the Supreme Court's Bruen historical-tradition test. A ruling could have implications well beyond New York.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reversed a George H.W. Bush-era policy prohibiting service members from carrying personal firearms on military bases. Base commanders must now presume approval for carry requests and provide written justification for any denial. Critics warn of increased suicide risk; supporters call it a straightforward Second Amendment correction.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear vetoed House Bill 312, which would have lowered the state's concealed carry license age from 21 to 18. The legislature can still override the veto. Beshear announced the decision at an event honoring victims of the 2023 Old National Bank shooting.

The U.S. Postal Service has proposed allowing handguns to be mailed for the first time since 1927, following a DOJ memo calling the century-old ban unconstitutional. The proposed rule would let unlicensed individuals mail handguns to other private parties with no background check required on the recipient — eliminating the FFL chokepoint that makes the current system function. The rule is not final and is currently in a public comment period.

A federal appeals court ruled April 3 that Maine's 72-hour gun purchase waiting period is likely constitutional, reversing a lower court injunction that had blocked the law. The First Circuit called the delay a 'burden' on Second Amendment rights but not a violation — a legal distinction that could influence waiting period challenges in other states. The case now returns to district court for a full hearing.

The Second Amendment Foundation has filed suit challenging the 35-year-old federal law banning firearms inside National Park Service buildings — visitor centers, ranger stations, the whole works. The case rests on Bruen and the argument that forcing campers to disarm before picking up a permit is exactly the kind of unconstitutional burden the Supreme Court already rejected. It's a developing case with no quick resolution, but the legal theory is solid enough to watch closely.

Colorado's HB-1144 bans 3D-printed firearms and components, but Gov. Polis forced sponsors to drop the provision targeting digital printing files before he'd sign it. Sponsors say they'll be back with a new governor in 2027.

The Second Amendment Foundation, NRA, and American Suppressor Association have asked the Supreme Court to take up a constitutional challenge to the NFA's suppressor registration requirements. The case — Peterson v. United States — was slated for the Court's April 17 conference. Congress already zeroed the tax stamp, but the registration and approval structure remains fully in force and is the real target.

The Seventh Circuit upheld a lifetime gun ban for a Wisconsin man convicted of drug dealing and caught with multiple firearms after a 2022 shooting incident. The court found his disarmament consistent with founding-era legal traditions under the Bruen historical-tradition test. Critically, the ruling explicitly leaves open whether non-violent felons face the same permanent ban.

The Supreme Court reversed the 2nd Circuit on qualified immunity Monday, protecting a Vermont detective from a civil lawsuit. More quietly, it passed again on challenges to state assault weapons bans — with no explanation. The gun cases aren't dead, just waiting.

Wyoming's governor signed two solid Second Amendment bills into law — lowering the concealed carry age to 18 and criminalizing Red Flag enforcement — while vetoing a third bill that would have added civil lawsuit provisions to the state's gun sanctuary law. GOA is pushing back on the veto's legal reasoning and signaling another run at the legislation.

The attorneys general of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware want to intervene in a Pennsylvania case challenging the federal ban on shipping firearms through the USPS — a ban the DOJ just stopped defending. The 1927 law left gun owners with zero legal shipping options. Three state AGs want to keep it that way.

New Jersey's permit-to-carry transparency dashboard stopped updating when a new governor took office in January. Assembly Bill 222, reintroduced in the legislature, would codify reporting requirements into law rather than leaving them subject to executive discretion. NRA-ILA is urging residents to push the bill forward.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court failed to report roughly 147,000 felony convictions to the California DOJ over several decades, keeping them out of the NICS background check database. The convictions are being transmitted now, but no agency has announced plans to check whether any prohibited persons purchased firearms during the gap. The failure covers records from the 1980s through as recently as 2023.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren reintroduced legislation that would ban DoD contractors and military plants from selling firearms and ammo to civilians. The bill's primary target is Lake City Army Ammunition Plant — and critics say cutting off commercial sales would undermine the facility's ability to supply the military during wartime.

A DC appellate panel ruled the District's 10-round magazine ban unconstitutional last week, finding standard-capacity magazines are protected arms under the Second Amendment. DC is now asking the full court to reverse the decision, calling the ruling destabilizing. An en banc decision could come by end of next week.

The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has declared the federal ban on mailing handguns unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, directing USPS to rewrite its regulations. The opinion follows a lawsuit filed by Gun Owners of America and applies the Supreme Court's Bruen historical tradition standard. USPS regulations haven't changed yet, so practical impact is still developing.

FPC and co-plaintiffs including the NRA and SAF filed for summary judgment in Brown v. ATF, arguing Congress's 2025 repeal of NFA transfer taxes eliminated the only constitutional basis the law has ever had. The motion also challenges suppressor and SBR restrictions directly under the Second Amendment. A district court ruling is the next step, with appeals certain to follow.

Illinois HB 4414 would serialize all handgun ammunition and feed transaction data into a state police registry starting in 2027. The bill relies on microstamping technology that experts say fails in real-world conditions — and critics argue the real target is lawful gun ownership, not crime.

Virginia is poised to ban AR-15s and standard-capacity magazines under Senate Bill 749, with Gov. Spanberger expected to sign. The Virginia Citizens Defense League is already lawyered up and ready to challenge it. Given the Supreme Court's *Bruen* framework and a growing circuit split, this law is on a collision course with federal courts.

The Supreme Court has a clear framework for K-12 student speech — but nothing comparable for college campuses. That legal gap leaves student firearms groups at public universities operating without clear constitutional protection against administrator overreach.

A new legal analysis argues the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause was never meant to mirror English common law's feudal 'right of the soil'—and the Founders made that clear when they declared independence. The case before the Supreme Court over birthright citizenship may hinge on what 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' actually meant in 1868.

The Supreme Court hears arguments April 1 on Trump's birthright citizenship order. DOJ's case rests on a definition of 'domicile' that doesn't appear in the 14th Amendment — and the legal citations aren't holding up under scrutiny. Gun owners have a stake: citizenship status directly determines federal firearms eligibility.

SCOTUS declined to act on several Second Amendment petitions in Monday's order list, adding only an environmental law dispute to next term's docket. For gun owners, a cert denial isn't neutral—it lets unfavorable lower court rulings stand. Here's what the court's silence actually means.

Gun sales rose 3.5% in February 2026 per NSSF-adjusted NICS data, even as the raw FBI background check number fell 13.5%. The gap comes down to permit rechecks—not fewer guns being sold. Constitutional Carry expansion in 29 states is the likely culprit behind the headline drop.

Ruger's LCP Max has cleared California's handgun roster with most of its upgrades intact. At $300–$350 with real sights, a 10-round magazine, and a tritium front dot, it's the best micro-.380 option Golden State buyers have had in a while.

The VA has ended its 30-year practice of reporting veterans to NICS simply for having a financial fiduciary. Over 270,000 veterans who lost gun rights without any court hearing or due process are getting them restored.

West Virginia Senate President Randy Smith killed SB 1071, the state's machine gun bill, before it reached a floor vote. Citing poor drafting and legal concerns, Smith blocked the measure despite strong committee support. A revised version may return next session.

Alex Pretti had a carry permit and never drew his weapon. Federal officials used his holstered gun to justify the shooting anyway. Gun rights groups that usually back Trump are calling it out—and it's not the only place the alliance is cracking.

Sen. Mike Lee introduced federal legislation that would eliminate concealed carry permit requirements nationwide and protect Americans from felony charges when carrying legally across state lines. The bill builds on the 29 states that already have constitutional carry and the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen decision. Political hurdles remain significant, but gun rights groups are treating this as the most serious federal push yet.

Senator Mike Lee introduced the National Constitutional Carry Act on March 5, a bill that would establish nationwide permitless carry and override state permitting schemes. Backed by GOA and NAGR, it would reshape carry law in restrictive states like New York and California. It faces an uphill battle in Congress, but it's forcing a national conversation.

The Supreme Court hears United States v. Hemani on March 2—a case that could determine whether 43–62 million marijuana users remain prohibited persons under federal gun law. The Liberty Justice Center argues the blanket disarmament has no historical or constitutional basis. The Trump administration wants the disqualification upheld, even for sober users in legal states.

Arizona's AG warned this week that ICE's unidentified plainclothes tactics put agents on a collision course with state self-defense law. She meant it as a caution. It reads as a textbook argument for why the Second Amendment exists in the first place.

The Supreme Court heard argument in United States v. Hemani, a case that asks how closely a modern gun law must mirror historical precedent to survive constitutional challenge. The ruling will sharpen—or loosen—the Bruen standard every lower court is currently applying. This one matters.

The Supreme Court declined to act on several Second Amendment challenges at its March 9 conference, including assault rifle and magazine ban cases. The Court is likely waiting to see how two pending gun-rights cases resolve before touching those petitions. Expect movement no earlier than late June.

Federal courts are weighing multiple ATF rule challenges in 2026, covering NFA regulations, private sale licensing, and marijuana user gun rights. Outcomes could affect suppressors, SBRs, and background check rules nationwide.

H.R. 38 cleared committee March 25 with 189 cosponsors and a 37% shot at becoming law. If it passes, your Idaho permit works in California, New York, and D.C.

The Sig P320's history of unintentional discharge complaints is back in focus after the Minneapolis shooting. Here's what P320 owners need to know about the recall history and voluntary upgrade program.

Florida's House passed HB 133 to drop the long gun purchase age back to 18—but the Senate hasn't filed a companion bill, same as the last three sessions.

SHOT Show 2026 delivered Gen6 Glocks, a $549 FN pistol, an updated SCAR lineup, and suppressor-ready ammo from Remington and Federal. Here's what actually matters.

PRS 2026 memberships are open for Rimfire, Regional, and PRO series. You need one before your first match if you want your scores to count in the standings.

SCOTUS looks ready to expand carry rights in Wolford v. Lopez — same week Trump officials argued a lawfully armed Minneapolis man deserved to be shot. Gun rights groups called out their own allies.

Winchester's Q4 2025 earnings collapsed 98% as raw material costs and promotional pricing wiped out margins. Commercial ammo price hikes are already announced for Q1 2026.

Colt CZ Group closed a $1.05B deal for 51% of Synthesia Nitrocellulose, locking in majority control of a key European propellant supplier. The move pushes the Colt/CZ parent deeper into vertical ammo production.

Ohio is moving to preempt local gun ordinances and establish a single statewide standard. For gun owners, it means no more legal minefield when crossing county lines.

Thermal sensor resolution quadrupled at SHOT Show 2026. High-end thermals are now complete fire control systems with integrated LRF and ballistics.

Savage's new REVEL series brings takedown lever-action rimfires in .22 LR, .22 WMR, and .17 HMR. Nostalgia meets modern utility.

Scopes from Maztech, Revic, and Burris now calculate firing solutions in real time using environmental sensors. What was $20k military tech is now $2,500.

The Army created a new office to speed ammunition procurement, consolidating functions across multiple agencies. Winchester's profits collapsed 98% in Q4 as the industry faces rising costs and supply chain pressure.

Colt CZ Group will acquire Czech nitrocellulose producer Synthesia for $1.05 billion, securing control of critical gunpowder ingredients as ammunition demand surges across NATO countries.

New Jersey appellate court reversed red flag order against grieving mother who made no threats after learning of son's death. Ruling highlights due process concerns as 21 states expand extreme risk protection laws.

Gun Owners of America broke with the Trump administration over a federal shooting, defending a concealed carry holder's rights after a U.S. Attorney claimed agents were "legally justified" in the killing.

Ohio Senate Bill 278 would let citizens sue municipalities that pass illegal gun restrictions, creating financial consequences for cities that violate state preemption law.

House committee advanced concealed carry reciprocity legislation as Trump officials face backlash for threatening legal gun owners. The controversy may strengthen support for national reciprocity standards.

SHOT Show 2026 featured PSA's modular AXR ecosystem, FN's resurrected SCAR series with suppressor threading, and Zev's folding 9mm pistol. Ammunition manufacturers focused on suppressor-optimized loads.

SIG SAUER debuts P211-GT4 and GT5 double-stack 1911 pistols at SHOT Show 2026. Both models use P320-compatible magazines and target competition and duty markets with hammer-fired reliability.

Palmetto State Armory's modular fire control system lets one serialized unit transfer between handguns, PDWs, rifles, and shotguns. One 4473 covers all.

Supreme Court upholds ATF's ghost gun rule 7-2, requiring background checks and serial numbers for weapon kits and unfinished receivers. Gorsuch wrote majority opinion using "Buy Build Shoot" kit as example.

ATF's pistol brace rule faces ongoing court challenges, leaving millions of gun owners uncertain about compliance requirements as federal circuits issue conflicting rulings on the regulation's validity.

GOA Texas proposes platform planks to expand constitutional carry to 18-year-olds and strengthen self-defense immunity. The resolutions target age restrictions courts have ruled unconstitutional.

ATF's new rule drops the blanket ban on gun purchases by anyone who's used drugs, focusing instead on current "compulsive" users. Medical marijuana patients and past users can now legally buy firearms starting June 30.

The Ninth Circuit struck down California's open-carry ban in counties over 200,000 residents, affecting 95% of the state's population. The 2-1 ruling creates a circuit split and could force California to allow open-carry permits statewide.

Glock's Gen6 pistols finally address decades of ergonomic complaints with palm swells, improved grip texture, and better trigger design while maintaining legendary reliability. Early reviews from law enforcement instructors are overwhelmingly positive.

The gun industry's own trade group admits 40% of new firearms contain defects—a failure rate that would kill any other consumer product industry. With no federal safety oversight, dangerous guns stay in circulation until lawsuits force fixes.

Mason Lane dominated USPSA Limited division at Race Gun Nationals, winning by 39 points in record 616-shooter field. Team SIG member's commanding performance validates elite sponsorship deal.

The Ninth Circuit struck down California's ban on open-carry permits in counties over 200,000 people, covering 95% of the state. The ruling creates a circuit split and challenges the "ban one mode, allow another" approach to carry laws.

Alex Pretti was a licensed CCW holder shot by federal agents after being disarmed. The video exists. Here's why every gun owner should care.

Federal courts struck down the ATF's pistol brace rule in 2024, making stabilizing braces legal again after threatening millions of gun owners with felony charges for possessing unregistered short-barreled rifles.

SHOT Show 2026 featured Glock's most significant design update in years with the ergonomic Gen6 pistols, expanded suppressor options following NFA tax removal, and practical gear improvements that address real shooter problems.