Ryan Routh is charged with violating the federal ban on former felons possessing guns. But does that ban violate the Second Amendment?
The Supreme Court’s recent decisions on Second Amendment rights have unleashed a flood of constitutional challenges to long-standing gun laws — including one being used to prosecute the man who allegedly tried to assassinate Donald Trump on his golf course this week.
Ryan Routh was arrested and charged with violating the federal ban on people with prior felony convictions possessing firearms.
That ban has long been a central part of federal gun-control efforts. But many of those charged under the statute — along with some gun-rights advocates — argue that the law is unconstitutional.
The issue has sown confusion in lower courts, and legal experts say it may soon need to be resolved by the Supreme Court.
Some defendants have argued that the ban violates the Second Amendment in light of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. That decision broadened gun rights by declaring that gun restrictions are valid only if they adhere to historical practices from early American history.
The new history-focused legal test for gun restrictions left lower courts nationally in disarray as judges and attorneys navigate how to apply the new mandate.
Earlier this year, in a case about whether the government can take guns away from people accused of domestic violence, the Supreme Court seemed to disavow a rigid application of Bruen’s historical approach. But in some ways, the decision only created further confusion.