In the last ten years, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to grant review in at least 87 Second Amendment cases where lower courts upheld gun safety laws. This includes a number of gun lobby-backed lawsuits advocating for a dangerously unlimited interpretation of the Second Amendment—one that ignores the careful safeguards expressed in the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment case, District of Columbia v. Heller. By repeatedly declining to review lower court decisions that upheld federal, state, and local gun laws, the Supreme Court has reconfirmed that the Amendment is not an obstacle to the laws that keep our communities safe from gun violence.
Since the Court’s 2008 decision in the Heller case, lower courts across the country have been inundated with costly and time-consuming challenges to state and local gun laws. However, lower courts have consistently upheld these laws, noting that many of these laws have been successful at protecting people from gun violence and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals while still allowing law-abiding citizens to keep guns in their homes for self defense. Since 2008, there have been over 1,310 Second Amendment cases challenging gun laws nationwide, with an overwhelming majority—nearly 93%—of the...
