NRA Files Amicus Brief Arguing that Firearm Prohibitions for Nonviolent Felons Violate the Second Amendment.

On September 24, NRA and the Firearms Policy Coalition filed an amicus brief in United States v. Duarte, a challenge to the federal lifetime prohibition on firearms possession by nonviolent felons.

The Supreme Court’s text-and-history test for Second Amendment challenges provides that a firearm regulation is constitutional only if it is consistent with America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

The amicus brief provides an extensive historical analysis of firearm prohibitions from colonial America through the nineteenth century. It emphasizes that America’s historical tradition of firearm regulation allows for the disarmament of dangerous persons—disaffected persons posing a threat to the government and persons with a proven proclivity for violence. But there is no historical tradition of disarming peaceable citizens. Rather, historically, peaceable citizens—including nonviolent felons—were expressly permitted and often required to keep and bear arms.

The case is currently before the en banc Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, after the court vacated a prior decision by a 3-judge panel holding the ban unconstitutional as applied to Duarte.

Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights.