AAF led a coalition of 13 co-amici filing amicus briefs in Viramontes v. Cook County, Illinois and Grant v. Higgins, cases challenging AR-15 bans in Illinois and Connecticut.
The recognition of the right of the people to keep and bear arms developed over hundreds of years in English law. The founding generation, learning from that history and their own experience, understood that the right to armed self-defense was essential both for personal safety and as a means of resisting tyranny.
In 2022, the Supreme Court announced the two-part Bruen test to ensure laws that regulate firearm ownership and use are consistent with the Second Amendment. Since then, states and localities have attempted to circumvent the limits the Second Amendment places on their power. At the same time, lower courts have deferred to state and local firearm regulations inconsistent with Bruen's direction. AAF’s brief urges the Court to reaffirm the limits on government power to regulate the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
“For Americans, firearms have always been a multi-purpose tool of liberty and thus an essential fundamental right. Yet some states and localities today seek to limit their residents’ exercise of that right however they can,” said AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat. “This case provides the Court with an opportunity to correct lower court applications of Bruen which have given state and local governments wide leeway to constrict the Second Amendment right. The Supreme Court should rule for Petitioner, and its reasoning should be robust enough to protect Americans’ right to keep and bear arms against regulations designed to evade Second Amendment precedent.”