A closer look at how a US Supreme Court ruling is upending gun control laws across the country

Tennessee lawmakers hoping to take on gun control in an August special session could face hurdles from a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that is now causing turmoil in courts across the country.

The so-called Breun decision in June 2022 overturned a New York law limiting the right to carry guns in public and has since sparked hundreds of legal challenges to gun laws, with varying opinions from judges.

While gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association have lauded the ruling as a major win for the Second Amendment, others say it’s causing more legal questions than answers.

“There’s a lot of confusion and a lot of chaos right now,” said Janet Carter, senior director of issues and appeals at Everytown Law, a gun control nonprofit. “Supreme Court decisions are supposed to provide clarity and certainty, but instead what we see is decisions just going all over the palace.”

The 6-3 decision essentially sets a new legal standard for gun laws. Any court wishing to uphold a firearm restriction must now consider whether the law is consistent with the country’s “historical tradition” of gun regulation.

Lower court judges have had widely different interpretations of the ruling. In Illinois, for example, a federal judge in the southern district blocked a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, while less than a week earlier a northern district judge had reached the opposite conclusion.

Here in Tennessee, the ruling has already impacted the state’s permitless carry law and it could affect the governor’s push for an emergency protective order law in the wake of the Covenant School shooting, as a local gun rights group has said it plans to sue if the state passes new legislation.

Gun control advocates hope to see clarity from an upcoming Supreme Court case out of Texas that would be the first to test the ruling, but for now, states in some cases have been left scrambling to change their laws.

Impact in Tennessee

Tennessee had to change the age limit for its open carry law following a recent lawsuit.

The state in 2021 became a permitless carry state, allowing for the open and concealed carry of handguns without a permit for anyone 21 and up, along with 18- to 20-year-olds serving in the military.

The governor had consistently said he supported the law as written, however the state was later sued by several younger Tennessee adults and a California gun rights group saying the age limit was unconstitutional.

Following the Breun decision, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti struck a deal with plaintiffs in the open carry case and opted not to challenge the suit.

The minimum age was dropped to 18 following the settlement, though efforts to change the law to officially lower it to 18 failed to advance in the legislature this year.

Gun control has been a top issue in Tennessee after the Covenant School mass shooting on March 27 that left six people dead, including three children.

Gov. Bill Lee has proposed an August special session for lawmakers to consider passing an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) law, which gives courts a way to temporarily remove the guns of someone a judge deems a threat to themselves or others.

The proposal, however, lacks support from Republican lawmakers, and any new legislation would likely face lawsuits from gun rights groups.

Tennessee Firearms Association Executive Director John Harris has said he believes any red flag laws are clearly unconstitutional under the Breun decision. He has said the state can expect a lawsuit if it pushes a new law.

The NRA, noting the proposal in Tennessee, also believes the ruling makes red flag laws unconstitutional on Second Amendment grounds.

Carter, with Everytown, said that’s up for interpretation and that most judges continue to uphold gun safety laws.

“There is a well-established historical basis for prohibiting people with a dangerous history from possessing firearms, and the federal courts have been looking to that history and upholding some of the federal prohibitors,” she said.

But states, nonetheless, have still had to make changes.

States amending their laws

In the past year, four states — Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey and New York — have passed bills to strengthen laws regulating the public carrying of firearms that were weakened from the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The laws set minimum standards for carrying guns in public places and prohibit firearms in sensitive places like schools, playgrounds, bars and public transit.

The aftermath has led to more than 450 Second Amendment court challenges for various gun laws. However, judges have upheld the constitutionality of gun laws in more than 88% of civil cases and 93% in criminal cases, according to an analysis from Giffords Law Center, a gun control advocacy group.

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As courts continue to navigate challenges, the U.S. Supreme Court in its next term will take up a case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that struck down a federal law prohibiting individuals from possessing guns while under a domestic violence restraining order.

Carter said the case would be the first to test the scope of the Breun decision and could bring more clarity for the court on gun laws.

Either way, she said the current decision still leaves room for gun safety.

“The jury is still out on what the ultimate impact if Breun could be,” she said. “But applying it correctly is still fully consistent with protecting the public and protecting people from gun violence.”

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Reach Kelly Puente at kpuente@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Gun laws: US Supreme Court decision is upending state decisions