Gun control, the Second Amendment and the judges of the U.S. Supreme Court | Explained Premium

Supreme Court upholds federal gun control law in landmark ruling, clarifying Second Amendment restrictions for domestic violence cases.

The story so far: On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal gun control law intended to protect victims of domestic violence, in a landmark 8-1 ruling. In United States vs Rahimi, the Court was tasked with deciding whether a statute prohibiting a person subject to domestic violence restraining orders is violative of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

The Second Amendment reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

In the present case, Texas man Zackey Rahimi had threatened to shoot his ex-girlfriend, who had also obtained a restraining order against him, and also engaged in six shooting incidents (with no fatalities) Mr. Rahimi’s case reached the Supreme Court after prosecutors appealed a ruling that threw out his conviction for possessing guns while subject to a restraining order. A federal appeals court in New Orleans had struck down the 1994 law.

In an 8-1 decison, the Court held that a law may impose criminal penalties for gun possession without violating the Second Amendment if the person is considered a danger to others by the judge. Authoring the Court’s opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “When an individual poses a clear threat of physical violence to another, the threatening individual may be disarmed.”

This decision, while welcome by gun rights advocates, did little to clarify the Second Amendment jurisprudence in the nation. This was the Court’s first major Second Amendment case since 2022, when its decision in Bruen expanded gun rights and proposed a historical analogue test to guide decisions about laws restricting guns.

Gun rights and control is a contentious, often litigated issue in the United States. And gun violence in a growing public menace. Recently, U.S Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis in the U.S, due to the increasing number of injuries and deaths caused by firearms.

Against the backdrop of the increasing gun violence and a growing jurisprudence (and confusion) over the status of gun laws in the country, we examine the Second Amendment, a few recent cases and what guides decision-making about this issue in the U.S.