Across the country, Democrats are moving to ban popular semiautomatic weapons as well as magazines holding more than 10 or 15 rounds of ammunition. That includes, most recently, Virginia, which has careened to the left after the election of Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D). However, the most chilling such legislation may be in Minnesota, where state Sen. Matt Klein has introduced SF 4290. The law not only bans semiautomatic rifles and magazines with more than ten bullets, but also allows citizens to keep prior purchased weapons only if they agree to allow the police to enter their homes to inspect storage and safety conditions.
The Supreme Court has thus far dodged review of these bans. However, while courts have upheld the bans in places like Illinois, some of us believe that banning weapons like the AR-15 is arbitrary and unconstitutional.
We have a Second Amendment protection of gun ownership, with over 490 million guns in private hands, as of 2022. In 2008, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, recognizing the Second Amendment as encompassing an individual right to bear arms. The Supreme Court further strengthened the right in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.
The AR-15 is the most popular gun in America and the number of these guns in private hands is continuing to rise rapidly, with one AR-15 purchased in every five new firearms sales. These AR-15s clearly are not being purchased for armored deer. Many are purchased for personal and home protection; it is also popular for target shooting and hunting. Many gun owners like the AR-15 because it is modular; depending on the model, you can swap out barrels, bolts and high-capacity magazines, or add a variety of accessories. While it does more damage than a typical handgun, it is not the most powerful gun sold in terms of caliber; many guns have equal or greater caliber.
Courts are divided on both the bans on semiautomatic weapons and the magazine bans.
However, what makes the Minnesota law so distinctive is the provision on home inspections. The law states that, in addition to securing state permission or certification for the possession of existing weapons, owners must “agree to allow the appropriate law enforcement agency to inspect the storage of the
device to ensure compliance with this subdivision.”
So new sales of these models would be banned, while existing weapons could only be retained if owners agree to home inspections. It is part of an overall assault on gun rights not just to limit models but to add layers of regulation for those who wish to retain their weapons.
These laws will, hopefully, compel the Court to accept review of these laws and bring greater clarity on the scope of this individual right.
The original intent of the Founding Fathers – which “Originalists” claim to support – is that the U.S. Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights were designed to RESTRAIN government authority.
These are authorities no government official has under the U.S. Constitution [a wartime governing charter] – not the president, not Congress and not the courts.
Local, state and federal laws were supposed to circumscribe the U.S. Constitution.
The role of the Judicial Branch including the U.S. Supreme Court was to interpret the letter & spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its subordinate local, state and federal laws. If the government action violated that letter & spirit, the only legal resolution was a constitutiinal-amendment. If the U.S. Constitution was fundamentally flawed there was a correction system called the “constitutional-amendment” process.
Starting in the 20th Century, both Republicans and Democrats both supported a foreign concept of government – the flawed notion that the “ends justify unconstitutional means”. The U.S. Constitution is a wartime charter, designed during wartime and designed to be followed during wartime and all times.
If America accepts that the U.S. Constitution is optional-when-convenient you have no 2nd Amendment rights or any rights at all. It’s a RESTRAINT on government authority even when it’s inconvenient for the bureaucrats!
The law should be rewritten to ban Democrats from office who are gun haters. And if they are gun haters for many years, then their heads should be inspected via surgery to make sure there are no squirrel cages operating their minds.
I’m pretty sure far fewer Democrats will run for office.
If you don’t like it, don’t live in Minnesota.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Energy Secretary LIED about the US Navy successfully escorting an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, all to try to juice up the market, which is tanking.
“If you don’t like it, don’t live in Minnesota.”
If you don’t like the Constitution of the United States, don’t live here.
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what [their powers] forbid.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
More than anyone, thank George W. Bush for losing your 2nd Amendment rights.
When Bush officials were illegally violating the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 14th Amendments, most Republicans and Conservatives were silent – not a peep about infringing upon Americans constitutional rights.
Bush created a foreign style “Preemption & Prevention Doctrine” with federal grants paid to state and local governments along with Fusion Centers (unconstitutional blacklisting centers) in every state. Blatant violation of the 4th Amendment and every official’s oath of office. Not a peep from most Republicans and Conservatives.
Bush officials also perceived dark skinned Americans playing paintball as probable cause to be investigated as a terrorist training exercise. If you had blond hair, it was not perceived as probable cause.
Bush then illegally established a 100-mile “Constitution Free” (lawless zone) where immigration officials perceived themselves with extrajudicial authority to stop and search anyone or anything within 100 miles of a border. Trump in Minnesota extended that illegal zones way past 100 miles.
The most evil torture tactic of all “Covert Blacklisting” – there are likely almost 1 million persons blacklisted for life (punished for life) with no indictment, no trial, no judge, no jury and no guilty verdict. Statistics based on the federal governments own watch list statistics compared to actual convictions.
If Bush created a weak flawed “foundation” – you need to tear that down first and rebuild. That’s the best protection of your 2nd Amendment rights – make presidents start being loyal to their oath of office. Undo the damage Bush did and every other president has abused since.
In over 20 years not a peep from most Republicans and Conservatives since it was directed at dark skin Americans. Now they are whining about the 2nd Amendment. Send a big thank you to Bush & Cheney!
The comments to the March 10th column jonathanturley.org/2026/03/10/seventh-circuit-delivers-sharp-rebuke-to-chicago-district-judge-over-her-constitutionally-suspect-orders-against-the-trump-administration/ show multiple posters who claim to be (or a t least lean) conservative piously decrying the idea that the Trump administration should just ignore blatantly unconstitutional Federal District Court rulings. I find that to be asinine, when so many state-level politicians are ignoring SCOTUS 2A affirming rulings and completely getting away with it. Are we supposed to be satisfied with chastising those politicians, to no effect? I fully understand the reluctance to embrace distasteful tactics of the enemy, but the point of tactics is to win, not to play nicely with others who will not reciprocate. The alternative may effectively be suicide.
Prof. Turley,
The landmark supreme court cases – Heller, McDonald, Bruen have driven the left to apoplexy and they have suddenly decided to pass the most idiotic and unconstitutional gun laws throughout the country.
All this is doing is tying up the courts in stupid litigation over unconstitutional laws.
It is likely that SCOTUS will take up the issue of high capacity magazines shortly as we have the rough equivalent of a circuit split.
It is highly unlikely that laws laws banning anything but extremely high capacity magazines will be upheld.
Here is a summary of major recent cases and their holdings.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases-by-topic/gun-rights/
All these laws are just stupid and wasteful of the precious time of our courts.
The laws should be declared unconstitutional instantly at the district court level.
But we have enough left wing nut judges that we are going to see the left fight losing battles over 2A issues for probably another decade.
About the only area where the Supreme court is granting states SOME latitude on 2A issues is “red flag” laws.
The court is giving too much lattitude to laws that allow “mental health checks” and the confiscation of firearms from people who have encounters with the mental health field.
In virtually all other areas SCOTUS is stricking down these lunatic left gun laws.
“These AR-15s clearly are not being purchased for armored deer.”
Seriously?! Turley has apparently resumed proudly displaying his gross (studied?) ignorance of firearms, and this phrase portrays a knee-jerk liberal reaction very evocative of his past. So-called AR-15 type firearms may be purchased for a variety of purposes, from target competition to self and home defense, to (yes, far more often than some of you might imagine) hunting. None of those prospective targets are typically “armored”. So-called AR-15 type firearms are typically either 5.56mm NATO or .223 Remington caliber (which are sometimes, but not always, safely interchangeable). Ammunition in those calibers comes in a very wide variety of formats (thanks to their very wide popularity) that suit an equally wide variety of uses. “Armor piercing” is a characteristic of ammunition obtained by designs and materials, is not strongly related to caliber, and not at all to rifle type. Such ammunition is a specialty item with a super hard and dense core of specially hardened steel, tungsten alloys, or even depleted uranium, enveloped in softer metals to avoid severe barrel wear. That ammunition is hard to find, extremely expensive, and seldom is present in the arsenal of even self-described prepper types.
Ano
You think, just maybe. Turley was just making a joke.
DustOff,
Yeah, that is what I was thinking.
Although, the original requirement for the SS109/M855 5.56NATO was the ability to penetrate through one side of a US WWII steel helmet at 500yrds.
Just looked it up, you can buy SS109/M855 ammo from MidwayUSA today.
How can it be legal to require people to surrender their 4th Amendment rights in order to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights? What next? In order to exercise your freedom of religion, you have to give up your freedom of speech and agree to not criticize the government? This is the tyranny our founders warned us about.
It is not.
Bruen
When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. To justify a firearm regulation, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
Caetano
The Second Amendment extends to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding, and this Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the states.
McDonald
The Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense. (In other words, the right is protected from state as well as federal interference.
Heller
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
OT
The Persian Empire was Great. Persians are great. Where the —- are they? Where the —- are the Great Persians in their Finest Hour?
If it was up your arse you’d know it! You could look it eye to eye.
So, not so great, after all?
Was that a QR code?
Here we go again. Democrats pass some un-Constitutional law, goes all the way up to the SC. SC rules it un-Constitutional, sets precedent to further secure gun ownership rights.
We wonder why our courts and DOJ are clogged with ten year backlogs and thousands of pending indictments. It’s another example of Cloward Piven style lawfare tactics from the Progressive Communist Democrats, frivolous lawsuits, ridiculous pleadings and bills that are blatantly unconstitutional submitted to jam the courts and thwart the conservative movement.
And then the state repasses some rehashed version of the same nonsense.
Bruen – striking NY’s idiotic gen laws was passed in 2022. NYS responding by passing the same laws using a slightly different – stupider basis.
That is slowly working its way back to SCOTUS where it will be tossed again.
All this nonsense is, is performative nonsense by the left.
Various left wing nut states pass stupid laws – sometimes even the 9th cirtcuit – California chokes on these stupid laws,
And the whole mess heads to the supreme court – who often does not even here thecase – just reverses and remands telling the lower courts and legislatures to READ BRUEN.
We are doing versions of the same nonsense with this garbage trying to thwart Trump’s immigration law enforcement.
These are all LOSING cases.
The singular and pervasive American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
There is no legal basis for it, and the entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional, including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, PBS, NPR, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Shall not be infringed….uh hem, registered so they know where they are. 😂 oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. 😂
Insurrectionist democrats now offering a right to gun ownership. MOM!
Mom: We already have gun ownership at home.
The offending statement: “A person described in paragraph (a) must: … (2) agree to allow the appropriate law enforcement agency to inspect the storage of the device to ensure compliance with this subdivision;” We are looking down the slippery slope of the positive rights mentality in legislatures where the government grants “rights” but only under certain conditions.