Professor Jacob Charles, "Assault Weapons Regulations: New Legal Considerations in Light of Bruen" -- Rockefeller Institute of Government

Professor Jacob D. Charles's opinion article, "Assault Weapons Regulations: New Legal Considerations in Light of Bruen," is published by the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The article examines the difficulties courts face in applying Supreme Court's historical test in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen to assault weapon restrictions.

Excerpt from "Assault Weapons Regulations: New Legal Considerations in Light of Bruen"

As courts grapple with the new challenges posed by the Bruen test, they will find that the decision does not provide all the answers needed to resolve many of the cases involving assault weapons. As I have argued in other work, the test Bruen prescribed fails to provide guidance at both steps of its framework, which is manifesting in confusion over assault weapon challenges. At the plain-text step, the decision does not clarify how the common-use test is supposed to work in practice, leaving questions about measuring weapon usage and ownership open. At the historical-tradition step, the justices did not explain what it means to find a relevant tradition, how widespread or long-lasting regulations need to be to qualify, and a number of other aspects for how to define the elusive concept of tradition.

The complete article may be found at Rockefeller Institute of Government