The right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment is among the “fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty.” Millions of Americans exercise that right by owning an AR-15 rifle, which is “the most popular rifle in the country.” Yet the State of Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, have made the possession of AR-15s a crime.
Those bans are unconstitutional. A firearms restriction comports with the Second Amendment only if it is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” And this country’s regulatory tradition precludes banning arms that are “in common use” among law abiding citizens for lawful purposes. That common use test has deep historical roots in English and American law. This Court has already adopted that test and has repeatedly applied it to evaluate the validity of arms bans.
The AR-15 rifle is unquestionably in common use among law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. Today, AR-15s are lawful at the federal level and in 40 States. The overwhelming majority of AR-15 owners possess those rifles for the lawful purposes to which they are adapted, such as self-defense in the home, hunting, and target shooting. A ban on possessing such rifles thus violates the Second Amendment.
— US Department of Justice Brief in Viramontes. v. Cook County