The Firearms Policy Coalition is an interesting organization. On one hand, they do amazing work challenging gun laws, even allegedly having a special printer just for printing them out. It’s fantastic, even if it’s not entirely true. I honestly don’t care, because the work is what matters, not the marketing.
They’re also the group most likely to tell an anti-gunner to perform anatomically improbable sexual acts upon their own person, and do it in style.
I like that.
I also like the press release they put out recently.
Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that its legal team has filed its merits brief with the United States Supreme Court in Viramontes v. Cook County, asking the Court to hold that bans on so-called “assault weapons” are unconstitutional and that semiautomatic rifles are protected by the Second Amendment.
“This is one of the most important Second Amendment cases in American history,” said FPC President Brandon Combs. “The question is simple: Can the government ban some of the most popular firearms in America? The Constitution says no. Supreme Court precedent says no. And the en banc Third Circuit recently said no in our landmark Cheeseman v. Davenport win. Now we are asking the Supreme Court to say so for the entire country.”
FPC’s brief argues that the result follows directly from the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that arms in common use cannot be banned. The same rule necessarily protects modern semiautomatic rifles, including the AR-15: they are “arms” under the plain text of the Second Amendment, tens of millions of Americans possess them for lawful purposes, and they are lawful in the overwhelming majority of states.
Indeed, the Supreme Court itself recently called the AR-15 “the most popular rifle in the country” and recognized that “military style” firearms, including so-called “assault weapons,” “are widely legal and purchased by ordinary consumers.”
The brief also attacks the lower courts’ attempts to evade Heller. The Seventh Circuit held that Cook County’s ban did not implicate the Second Amendment’s plain text, while the Second Circuit concluded that commonly possessed rifles could still be deemed too “dangerous” to protect. FPC argues that both approaches are incompatible with the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent.
“The Second Amendment protects ‘arms’—period,” Combs continued. “Millions of Americans choose semiautomatic firearms for lawful purposes. Authoritarian politicians do not get to veto that choice. These are protected arms, and bans on them are flat-out unconstitutional. It’s time for the Supreme Court to say so.”
I’m with Combs. It’s not just time; it’s well past time. This should have happened before 2004, if we’re being honest. It didn’t, so now we get to deal with this crap in 2026.
As noted, the Supreme Court actually did call it that. More accurately, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that. One of the most liberal justices on the court acknowledged that the gun in question is the most popular rifle in the country in a decision. Heller makes it very clear that guns in common use cannot be restricted like that, and while I disagree with the whole “in common use” thing, it is the current precedent, and the AR-15 and similar rifles meet that criterion easily.
While I’m confident the Supreme Court will strike down assault weapon bans, it’s also important how they do it. A narrow ruling that barely impacts anything isn’t going to make our problems go away. It’ll just compound them as states start trying to play games. We need a big, broad ruling that makes it clear future attempts to restrict entire categories of weapons are unconstitutional and will not be accepted.
Granted, some people are a little thick and won’t get it, but we can deal with them once the precedent is firmly established.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind it simply saying, “What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ do you people fail to understand?”
Somehow, I doubt we’ll be that lucky.
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