A deluge of legal opinions is flying into the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of its consideration of state and local bans on AR-15s and similar weapons. All sides are weighing in, some with more credibility than others.
With that in mind, it is noteworthy that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed its own amicus brief defending ownership of these popular firearms by law-abiding citizens. It is firmly rooted in the nation’s history of protecting gun rights.
It’s hard to imagine this submission a few short years ago.
AR-15s unquestionably are ‘arms’ in ‘common use’
According to the brief, high court precedent already protects the right of the people to possess semi-automatic pistols, even though they are much more commonly used by violent criminals than sporting rifles.
With tens of millions of these popular weapons in circulation and most states upholding the people’s right to own modern firearms, the Supreme Court previously observed that they are “the most popular rifle” in the U.S.
Sporting rifles are “arms,” and they most certainly are in “common use.” The DOJ brief further counters lower-court judges’ conclusions that they play almost no role in self-defense.
There are many reasons the State’s security depends on gun rights
“AR-15s are highly useful in self-defense, both in their capacity for deterrence and in their lethality,” the DOJ argued. “Moreover, while Americans own AR-15s for many reasons, self-defense is the most common. Surveys have found, for example, that around 60%-65% of survey respondents have cited self-defense as a major reason for owning an AR-15 or another AR-style rifle.”
As the nation’s early statesmen knew well, personal self-defense is hardly the only compelling argument for protecting gun rights.
“The founding generation understood that the individual right to keep and bear arms ‘helped to secure the ideal of a citizen militia, which might be necessary to oppose an oppressive military force if the constitutional order broke down,’” the powerful brief noted.
Yes, the framers knew firsthand that tyranny would not be defeated by harsh language. Instead, it is the people’s right to stand against powerful forces if pushed into a corner, and the Second Amendment protects that freedom.
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