Second Amendment Cases After Bruen Part II: Bearing Arms, Commerce Regulation, and State Issues

Join David B. Kopel - Supreme Court litigator and Research Director of the Independence Institute - for an in-depth review of Second Amendment since Bruen. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen affirmed the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Perhaps even more importantly, the Court told lower courts to decide Second Amendment cases the same way that the Supreme Court had decided the Heller case in 2008 and McDonald in 2010: based on the text and original meaning of the Second Amendment, as elucidated by legal history.

Since Bruen, many gun control laws have been held unconstitutional, while many others have been upheld. Some issues have generated conflicting opinions from different courts. This two-part case will survey the full scope lower court decisions under Bruen.

Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze conditions on lawfully bearing arms and bans
2. Break down federal and state regulations of firearms businesses, the new wave of lawsuits against firearms businesses, and home manufacture of firearms
3. Identify state preemption statutes against local gun control laws, state statutes against cooperation with enforcement of federal gun controls, and the new state constitutional right to arms