Legal scholars argue historical laws should not justify modern gun restrictions

NRA-ILA Litigation Director Joseph Greenlee and University of Wyoming law professor George Mocsary published an essay in the Yale Law Journal Forum analyzing the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Wolford v. Lopez. The authors argue that Hawaii’s defense of its restrictive carry law failed under the Bruen history-and-tradition test because it relied on historical precedents that the Constitution was designed to correct.

The essay contends that Bruen’s inquiry is constitutional rather than merely descriptive, meaning a historical law does not automatically become an authoritative measure of constitutional meaning simply because it was enacted. The authors suggest that practices reflecting the abuses the Second Amendment was designed to prevent, such as Reconstruction Era Black Codes, should serve as anti-analogues rather than affirmative precedents for modern restrictions.

Read the full story at nraila.org.