{"id":5779,"date":"2026-09-05T15:38:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=5779"},"modified":"2026-09-05T15:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:38:43","slug":"second-amendment-does-in-common-use-mean-in-common-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=5779","title":{"rendered":"Second Amendment: does “in common use” mean in common use?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In its next term, the Supreme Court will take up \u201cassault weapon\u201d bans. Such bans refer specifically to the AR-15 rifle family and similar semiautomatic rifles. Not only are they emotional rather than rational, but they\u2019re also an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court\u2019s Heller and Bruen decisions, which held, among other things, that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right and that controversies must be decided under the Strict Scrutiny standard, the highest standard of judicial review.<\/p>

Read more Feminine devolution<\/a><\/p>\n

A primary issue is the \u201cin common use\u201d standard.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

But apart from a handful of late-19th-century jurisdictions, the historical record compiled by respondents does not demonstrate a tradition of broadly prohibiting the public carry of commonly used firearms for self-defense.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From \u201cWhat Part of Common Use Don\u2019t You Understand?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Mark W. Smith in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy:<\/p>\n

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Because the \u201cin common use\u201d test looks to arms that are in common use today, that test automatically and necessarily protects existing technology, and addresses any contemporary societal concerns stemming from such modern technology. Lower courts are not free to disregard\u00a0Heller<\/em>\u2019s \u201cin common use\u201d test and instead substitute a \u201cdangerousness\u201d test of their own devising. Doing so is merely \u201cinterest balancing\u201d in a different guise, which is prohibited by both\u00a0Heller<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Bruen<\/em>\u00a0in Second Amendment challenges to gun-control laws.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Graphic: An AR-15 variant. \u00a0Author.<\/p>\n

That argument against \u201cassault weapons\u201d is that they are so uniquely dangerous that public safety requires their banning. There is no such thing in firearm nomenclature as an \u201cassault weapon.\u201d It is an invented term intended to dishonestly conflate classes of automatic weapons such as the military assault rifle with semiautomatic rifles that superficially resemble them. AR-15s outwardly resemble the military, select-fire M4, but there the similarity ends. AR-15s are among the most popular and commonly used guns in America, and fire an intermediate, not a \u201chigh-powered\u201d cartridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How common are they?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

A second iteration of the\u00a0National Firearms Survey\u00a0by Prof. William English at the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University found 461 million guns owned by 88 million Americans, including more than 40 million \u201cmodern semiautomatic rifles,\u201d most of which are surely AR-15 variants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new survey also shows at least 25 percent of American gun owners currently own an AR-15 type rifle, 12.9% currently own other similarly styled semi-automatic rifles, and 30.0% \u2013 approximately 26.4 million adults \u2013 currently own at least one firearm in one of these two categories,\u201d noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Clearly, AR-15s and similar guns are constitutional under the Heller and Bruen \u201cin common use\u201d test.<\/p>

Read more Communism: We saw that movie<\/a><\/p>\n

There is, however, concern by some Second Amendment defenders that the \u201ccommon use\u201d standard is too restrictive, even vague. Should a new type of gun be invented, a gun that promised to be very popular, how could it ever come into common use against the efforts of anti-liberty\/gun cracktivists, who would attempt to strangle it in its cradle?\u00a0Such a gun might be the recently invented KelTec KP-50 braced pistol. It\u2019s a semiautomatic gun, firing an even less powerful cartridge than the AR-15.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Graphic: KelTec KP-50.<\/p>\n

Would this require an entirely new Supreme Court jurisprudence that could take many years\u2014from Heller to Bruen took 14 years\u2014to vindicate what the Constitution and Court clearly recognize as an unalienable right?\u00a0\u00a0Is the constitutionality of a weapon useful for self-defense, which the Court recognizes as the foundation of the Second Amendment, not dependent on militia connections,\u00a0dependent on the number of that weapon in circulation? If so, how many? What is the minimum threshold of \u201cin common use?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a valid concern, but is unlikely to be a significant factor in the Court\u2019s coming deliberations. In a nation of nearly 350 million, 40 million is a significant number, and is surely low. Surveys are samples, which, done properly, can be\u00a0reasonably accurate. Many gun owners are reasonably distrustful of surveys of their guns and use patterns. They\u2019ve seen that shifting political winds are commonly the difference between lawful gun ownership and being charged with federal felonies for guns or accessories which were legal a day ago. They commonly refuse to participate in surveys, or downplay the numbers and types of guns they own.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely the Court majority\u2014the three female leftists will surely vote for bans\u2014will hold the bans unconstitutional, defeating another attempt by anti-liberty\/gun cracktivists to ban any class of gun, thereby establishing precedent for banning them all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That will be a very good thing. Considering our contemporary political turmoil and the threat posed by internal Communists, Americans may need every gun they can get. The truism that you can vote your way into communism, but must shoot your way out, holds true.<\/p>\n

Become a subscriber and get our weekly Friday newsletter with unique content from our editors.\u00a0These essays alone are worth\u00a0<\/em>the cost of the subscription.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is<\/em>\u00a0Stately McDaniel Manor.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>

Read more It seemed like a good idea at the time<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its next term, the Supreme Court will take up \u201cassault weapon\u201d bans. Such bans refer specifically to the AR-15 rifle family and similar semiautomatic rifles. Not only are they emotional rather than rational, but they\u2019re also an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court\u2019s Heller and Bruen decisions, which held, among other things, that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,714],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-second-amendment"],"yoast_head":"\nSecond Amendment: does "in common use" mean in common use? - Interstate Logistics Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=5779\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Second Amendment: does "in common use" mean in common use? - Interstate Logistics Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In its next term, the Supreme Court will take up \u201cassault weapon\u201d bans. 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