To say it’s a grand old time for gun rights at the Supreme Court is a bit of an understatement. We got two big cases ruled in our favor and cert granted in an assault weapon ban challenge, which we’re all expecting to win. That’s big news.
But it’s big news because of how Hemani and Wolford advance gun rights beyond marijuana use and killing the vampire rule. Those cases will lay the groundwork for undoing plenty of other unconstitutional gun control laws.
And activists in New Jersey are getting right on that.
Gun-rights advocates again are urging federal judges to strike down New Jersey’s ban on firearms in sensitive places, saying two U.S. Supreme Court rulings last month overturning similar restrictions in Hawaii and Texas prove the law here is unconstitutional and cannot stand.
In those decisions, the nation’s top court said government cannot ban guns on private property open to the public — places like gas stations and grocery stores — or disarm pot smokers and other users of drugs treated as illegal by federal law.
Those rulings are fatal to New Jersey’s contested 2022 law, which prohibits guns on private property open to the public and bars firearms at places where alcohol is served under the presumption that all substance users are dangerous, the advocates argued in briefs filed Wednesday.
Attorney David D. Jensen, who represents the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition, argued that the justices “flatly rejected creative efforts to legislate around the requirements of Bruen.” Bruen is the 2022 Supreme Court decision that struck down requirements by New Jersey and other states that gun owners show a particular need before carrying a handgun outside the home or workplace.
In the Hawaii case, the justices cited New Jersey’s law as problematic, Jensen noted.
Not a promising start to New Jersey’s defense, that’s for sure.
And the kicker is that while you can find a historic analog for banning drunk people from carrying guns, not everyone who enters a bar or restaurant that serves alcohol is going to drink. Designated drivers are a thing, and they’re still cheaper than Uber. The historic prohibitions don’t apply to those who aren’t consuming alcohol at that moment.
That’s what Hemani essentially determined. They’re not a danger simply because they have consumed a substance in the past or are in a given location.
Then we have the fact that Wolford killed the idea of default bans of guns by the state on private property, and cited New Jersey’s law as a problem, and…yeah. It’s not going to be fun in court for the state’s attorneys.
Does that bother me? Yes. I injure my ribs laughing every time I think about it. Beyond that, though, it doesn’t.
Nor should it.
Of course, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of judicial aikido the state’s attorneys try here, because they’re unlikely to just acknowledge that the state’s law is unconstitutional. They’re going to put up a fight still, and while John Petrolino has talked about some of those arguments already, there will be more, and it’s going to be interesting to behold.
Make popcorn.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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