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GUN SAFETY IN THE AGE OF KAVANAUGH
Joseph S. Hartunian*
INTRODUCTION
In 2008, the Supreme Court undertook a historical analysis of the Sec-
ond Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides: A
well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.' In the
landmark case District of Columbia v. Heller (Heller I), Justice Antonin
Scalia wrote the majority opinion, holding that this amendment guaran-
tee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of con-
frontation.2 This redefinition of one of the first additions to the
Constitution carried enormous implications for gun owners, manufactur-
ers, and policymakers; however, in the ten years since the ruling, the case
is perhaps most notable for what it did not do.
Of course the right [is] not unlimited, Justice Scalia wrote.3 But what
exactly are those limits? And how exactly should courts interpret this
dramatic change in Second Amendment jurisprudence? [S]ince this case
represents this Court's first in-depth examination of the Second Amend-
ment, one should not expect it to clarify the entire field, opined the ma-
jority in response to this question.4 Indeed, this job has been left to the
lower courts in the years since. Though Heller I explicitly identifies cer-
tain types of regulations undisturbed by its holding, new regulations have
come in the crossfire, especially as McDonald v. City of Chicago made Sec-
ond Amendment rights applicable against the states through the Due Pro-
cess Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.5
Just three years later, in Heller v. District of Columbia (Heller II), the
identical plaintiff from the original Heller opinion challenged new
* Associate, Proskauer Rose LLP. Advisor to Senator Amy Klobuchar on the nomi-
nation of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Fall 2018. Legislative Aide to
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 2013- 2015.
Villanova University, B.A., 2012; University of Michigan Law School, J.D., 2018. Thanks to
Chris Stackhouse for helpful tone-modulation advice, to Elizabeth Farrar, Keagan Bu-
chanan, Marc Lanoue and Julia Bradley for listening throughout the writing process, and
to the editors at Michigan Law Review for their incredibly hard work.
1. U.S. CONST. amend. II.
2. 554 U.S. 570, 592 (2008).
3. Heller I, 554 U.S. at 595.
4. Id. at 635.
5. 561 U.S. 742, 791 (2010).
104](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/mlro118&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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