Professor Jacob Charles Quoted in "New York's Gun Law Signals Post-Bruen Era" -- Law360

Professor Jacob D. Charles is quoted in the Law360 article, "New York Gun Law Signals Post-Bruen Era." The article considers the effects of a New York federal judge's decision to block portions of New York's revised firearms restrictions law following the Supreme Court's decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. 

Excerpt from "New York Gun Law Signals Post-Bruen Era"

Jacob Charles, a law professor at Pepperdine University's Caruso School of Law who specializes in firearms law, agreed with the notion that Bruen puts the onus on judges to act as historians. 

"[Bruen] requires judges to only look at history, but it doesn't give them a lot of guidance on how to do that," he said. "We know that historical research is incredibly difficult even for trained historians, which judges are not. Trial courts at the state and federal level hearing these challenges in the first instance are already quite overburdened and now have to undertake this historical inquiry." 

Even if a judge follows the letter of Bruen, it would still lead to results "all over the place," because "Bruen is just fundamentally indeterminate about how this test is supposed to be applied," Charles said. 

"It doesn't say anything about how long-lasting traditions should be ... it doesn't tell courts whether they should look at 1791 or 1868 — when firearms laws were vastly different — and leaves open a lot of questions that are important in deciding these cases," he said. "It was entirely predictable the moment Bruen came down that there would be inconsistent district court decisions based entirely on a judge's gut impression of whether historical analogues are close enough to a modern-day regulation." 

The complete article may be found at Law360 (registration required)