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SCOTUS Takes on Assault Weapon Bans — Finally · Live to Shoot - Defending our 2nd Amendment Rights

• 0:14
  Welcome to the Live to Shoot podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm Jeff Dow and I've been a licensed firearm dealer for the last 18 years, and this podcast talk about all things related to Second Amendment, anything else going on in the world, the sports story, or anything else that I might find interesting.
• 0:27
  So welcome, welcome, welcome.
• 0:29
  And we're talking about something big today.
• 0:31
  We have not talked about the Supreme Court in a long time and we are going to today.
• 0:36
  So the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear some challenges to the, quote-unquote assault weapon ban.
• 0:43
  And and I say the quote-unquote because the term itself is part of the problem and, and we're gonna get into that.
• 0:49
  So let's give you a little background.
• 0:51
  The Supreme Court grants certiorari which is just a legal term for agreeing to take up a case in two cases that directly challenge bans on what legislatures have labeled assault weapons.
• 1:02
  Now, these are the kind of bans that states like California, Illinois, Maryland, and others have on, on their books for years.
• 1:10
  Some of them go back decades.
• 1:11
  And for years, courts have been going back and forth on whether these bans are constitutional.
• 1:16
  Lower courts have been all over the map.
• 1:18
  Some have upheld them, some have struck them down.
• 1:21
  It's been a mess, and now the Supreme Court is finally stepping in to settle it.
• 1:25
  So what's that mean?
• 1:26
  Let's be straight.
• 1:27
  This is potentially could be the most significant Second Amendment case since Bruen decision back in 2022.
• 1:34
  If you remember, Bruen was the case where the Supreme Court said that firearm regulations have to be consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation in America.
• 1:42
  They can't just be making up a balancing test and saying public safety outweighs your rights." No, the government has to show that the regulation is consistent with what the forefathers would have recognized, and that was the game changer.
• 1:54
  Now, after Bruen came down, a lot of us expected these assault weapon ban cases to move quickly, but the lower courts have dragged their feet.
• 2:02
  Some of them found creative ways to uphold the bans anyway, twisting the Bruen framework or ign-ignoring it altogether, and it's been frustrating because here you have the highest court in the land laying down a clear standard, and lower courts are just pretending it doesn't really apply when it comes to guns that they don't like.
• 2:20
  So here's what, where it gets interesting.
• 2:23
  The fact that the Supreme Court has now agreed to take these two cases tells us something.
• 2:27
  It tells you the justices see what happened.
• 2:30
  They see the confusion, the inconsistency, and frankly, the defiance in the lower courts, and they've decided it's time to weigh in directly Now let's talk about what's actually been challenged here.
• 2:41
  The assault weapon bans typically target semi-automatic rifles based on cosmetic features.
• 2:46
  These are things like pistol grips, adjustable stocks, barrel shrouds, threaded barrels.
• 2:53
  They call the, the military style features.
• 2:55
  But here's the thing, a semi-automatic rifle functions the same way whether it has a pistol grip on it or not.
• 3:01
  You pull the trigger, one round fires.
• 3:04
  That's it.
• 3:05
  These aren't machine guns.
• 3:06
  They're not full auto.
• 3:08
  They are some of the most commonly owned firearms in America.
• 3:11
  The AR-15 platform alone, there are tens of millions of them in civilian hands.
• 3:16
  Tens of millions of them And that's a critical legal point.
• 3:20
  In the Heller decision back in two thousand and eight, the Supreme Court said the Second Amendment protects arms that are in common use for lawful purposes.
• 3:28
  So think about it.
• 3:29
  If there are twenty million plus AR-15s in the country being used for home defense, for sporting shooting, for hunting, for competition, how can you say they're not in common use?
• 3:39
  You can't, not with a straight face.
• 3:41
  So the core question the Supreme Court is going to have to answer is this: Can the government ban an entire class of firearms that are owned by millions of law-abiding citizens used overwhelmingly for lawful purses-- purposes based on cosmetic features and a made-up term like assault weapon?
• 3:59
  And under the Bruen framework, they're going to have to find a historical analog.
• 4:04
  They're gonna have to show that there's a tradition in American history of banning commonly owned firearms from law-abiding citizens, and good luck with that because there isn't one.
• 4:13
  Now, I don't wanna get ahead of ourselves.
• 4:15
  We don't have a ruling yet.
• 4:17
  The court has agreed to hear the case, so arg- oral arguments will happen, in their next term, and the decision could come down sometime in twenty twenty-seven.
• 4:25
  So this is going to take some time, but the fact that they took the case is huge.
• 4:30
  So what's that mean for you right now?
• 4:31
  If you live in a state with an assault weapon ban, nothing changes immediately.
• 4:35
  These laws are still on the book, and they're still being enforced.
• 4:38
  So you need to follow laws in your state.
• 4:40
  But what this does g- is give us hope for that the Supreme Court is going to do what it should have done a long time ago, which is apply the Second Amendment the way it's written.
• 4:49
  The second the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
• 4:54
  It doesn't say the right to keep and bear arms unless the government decides that your rifle looks too scary.
• 4:59
  And this isn't just about AR-15s, it's about a broader principle.
• 5:03
  If the government can ban one class of commonly owned firearms, what stops them from banning the next?
• 5:07
  Handguns, shotguns, where does it end?
• 5:10
  That's why this case matters to every gun owner in America, even if you don't own an AR-15, even if you live in a free state because a win here sets a precedent that protects us all.
• 5:20
  And here's the bottom line.
• 5:22
  The Supreme Court is about to take on the second...
• 5:25
  Excuse me, take on the biggest Second Amendment case question in years.
• 5:28
  Can the government ban the most popular rifle in America?
• 5:31
  The legal framework from Bruen and Heller says no.
• 5:33
  History says no.
• 5:34
  The Constitution says no.
• 5:36
  Now we need the court to say it clearly and definitively so that every lower court in the country gets the message.
• 5:42
  So stay tuned.
• 5:44
  I'm gonna be following it closely.
• 5:45
  We'll keep you updated as things develop.
• 5:47
  This one's gonna be fun to watch.
• 5:49
  So if you found all this valuable, subscribe, share it with somebody, give it five stars.
• 5:55
  Let people know what's happening with their rights and, and what they can do about it.
• 6:00
  I appreciate it.
• 6:00
  And remember, this is Jeff Dowdle.
• 6:02
  This is Live to Shoot.
• 6:03
  We're defending the Second Amendment.
• 6:05
  You need to stay informed, stay armed, and fight, fight, fight.
• 6:08
  And I will talk to you next week