Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-rkzlw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-28T05:23:15.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

COVID-19 Emergency Restrictions on Firearms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2021

Samuel A. Kuhn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines emergency restrictions imposed by state-level public officials on firearms during the COVID-19 pandemic. It surveys the litigation challenging each of the relatively few restrictions that were imposed, considers when and whether courts should apply the deferential Jacobson standard, the Heller Second Amendment analysis, or both, and explores the possibility that the unsettled nature of Second Amendment jurisprudence makes it likely that challenges to emergency firearms restrictions could result in dramatic developments in what the Second Amendment protects.

Information

Type
Online Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 48 , Issue S4: Gun Violence in America: An Interdisciplinary Examination , Winter 2020 , pp. 119 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

National Rifle Association, COVID-19: Threat to Second Amendment, National Rifle Association – Institute for Legislative Action, available at <https://www.nraila.org/coronavirus?page=0&state=1532&tgt=latest-news> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
MacLellan, C., U.S. Firearms Sales: March 2020 Unit Sales Show Anticipated Covid-19 Related Boom, Small Arms Analytics (April 1, 2020), available at <http://smallarmsanalytics.com/v1/pr/2020-04-01.pdf> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Collins, K. and Yaffe-Bellany, D., “About 2 Million Guns Were Sold in the U.S. as Virus Fears Spread,” New York Times, April 1, 2020, available at <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/01/business/coronavirus-gun-sales.html> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Barton, C. et al., “Gun Shops Flouted State Closure Orders in April as Industry Notched Another Big Month,” The Trace, May 14, 2020, available at <https://www.thetrace.org/2020/05/coronavirus-gun-sales-state-closures-background-checks/> (last visted September 11, 2020).+(last+visted+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
MacLellan, C., U.S. FirearmsSsales: May 2020 Unit Sales Break Records Yet Again (June 1, 2020), Small Arms Analytics, available at <http://smallarmsanalytics.com/v1/pr/2020-06-01.pdf> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Id.Google Scholar
National Sport Shooting Foundation, First-Time Gun Buyers During COVID-19, Firearm Retailer Survey, available at <https://d3aya7xwz8momx.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/FirstTimeResearch.pdf> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Stanley, M., “Why the Increase in Domestic Violence During COVID-19?” Psychology Today, May 9, 2020, available at <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/making-sense-chaos/202005/why-the-increase-in-domestic-violence-during-covid-19> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Wan, W., “The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Pushing America into a Mental Health Crisis,” The Washington Post, May 4, 2020, available at <https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/04/mental-health-coronavirus/> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Donaghue, E., “‘Alarming’ Spike in Deadly Unintentional Shootings by Kids as Gun Sales Roar during Lockdowns,” CBS News, May 8, 2020, available at <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unintentional-shootings-guns-kids-sales-coronavirus-lockdowns/> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Powder, J., “Surge of Gun Sales Amid COVID-19 Worries Experts,” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, April 9, 2020, available at <https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/gun-sales-surge-amid-coronavirus-anxiety.html> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
See, e.g., Segarre, S., “The Historical Background of the Police Power,” University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law no. 9 (2007): 745-796, at 773-777; Powell, J.H., Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of the Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793 (Philadelphia: Univ. of Penn. Press, 1949).Google Scholar
United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 566 (1995).Google Scholar
Brown v. Maryland, 25 U.S. (12 Wheat.) 419, 442-43 (1827).Google Scholar
Barnes v. Glen Theatre, 502 U.S. 560, 569 (1991).Google Scholar
Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905).Google Scholar
See, e.g., California Constitution art. IV Sec. 86.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Mich. Comp. Laws § 10.31.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Cal. Const. art. IV, § 8, cl. (d)Google Scholar
See, e.g., Ga. Code § 38-3-51(d)(4).Google Scholar
See, e.g., 20 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 3305/7(c)(8).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Wiley, L.F. and Vladeck, S.I., “Coronavirus, Civil Liberties, and the Courts: The Case Against “Suspending Judicial Review,” Harvard Law Review Forum 133, no. 9 (2020): 179-199.Google Scholar
Friends of DeVito v. Wolf, 2020 WL 1847100 (Supr. Ct. of PA. 2020).Google Scholar
Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976).Google Scholar
Friends of DeVito at 21.Google Scholar
South Bay Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 2020 WL 2813056 (2020).Google Scholar
Id., at 2 (quoting Marshall v. United States, 414 U. S. 417, 427 (1974)).Google Scholar
Id. (quoting Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U. S. 528, 545 (1985)).Google Scholar
In re: Abbott, 954 F.3d 772, 784 (5th Cir. 2020).Google Scholar
Id., at 786.Google Scholar
Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Rutledge, 2020 WL 2240105, 3-5(E.D. Ark., May 7, 2020).Google Scholar
Adams & Boyle, P.C. et al., v. Slatery et al, 956 F.3d 913 (6th Cir. 2020); South Wind Women's Center LLC v. Stitt, 2020 Wl 1860683 (10th Cir. 2020).Google Scholar
Adams at 927.Google Scholar
See the Online Appendix for table summarizing claims.Google Scholar
Wash. Exec. Order No. 20-25 (March 23, 2020), available at <https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/proclamations/20-25%20Coronovirus%20Stay%20Safe-Stay%20Healthy%20%28tmp%29%20%28002%29.pdf> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
McCarthy v. Baker, 2020 WL 2297278 (D. Mass. 2020) (amended preliminary injunction order).Google Scholar
New Mex. Exec. Order No. 2020-026 (April 30, 2020), available at <https://www.governor.state.nm.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Executive-Order-2020-026.pdf> (last visited September 11, 2020).+(last+visited+September+11,+2020).>Google Scholar
Mich. Exec. Order No. 2020-59 (April 26, 2020), available at <https://www.michigan.gov/documents/whitmer/EO_2020-59_Signed_688350_7.pdf> (last visited Septebmer 11, 20202) (allowing curbside pickup for non-essential goods, including firearms, and in-store purchases of guns from stores that sell necessary supplies as well as guns).+(last+visited+Septebmer+11,+20202)+(allowing+curbside+pickup+for+non-essential+goods,+including+firearms,+and+in-store+purchases+of+guns+from+stores+that+sell+necessary+supplies+as+well+as+guns).>Google Scholar
Conn. Exec. Order No. 7E (March 17, 2020), available at <https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Office-of-the-Governor/Executive-Orders/Lamont-Executive-Orders/Executive-Order-No-7E.pdf?la=en>>Google Scholar
Complaint, Aragon et.al v. Grisham et.al, 1:20-cv-00325, 10 (D.N.M, April 10, 2020).Google Scholar
South Bay Pentecostal at 1; See also In re Abbott, 954 F.3d 772, 785 (5th Cir. 2020); In re Rutledge, 956 F.3d 1018, 1028 (8th Cir. 2020).Google Scholar
Blocher, J. and Miller, D.A.H., “What is Gun Control? Direct Burdens, Incidental Burdens, and the Boundaries of the Second Amendment,” University of Chicago Law Review 83 (2016): 295-355.Google Scholar
Jacobson at 7.Google Scholar
Mervosh, S., Lee, J.C., Gamio, L., and Popovich, N., “See How All 50 States Are Reopening,” New York Times, June 5, 2020.Google Scholar
Altman, et al., v. County of Santa Clara, et al., 2020 WL 2850291, 9 (N.D.CA., June 2, 2020).Google Scholar
Heller, 554 U.S. at 635.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Woollard v. Gallagher, 712 F3.d 865, 874-75 (4th Cir. 2013) (including a list of cases that apply a two-step approach).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Teixeira v. County of Alameda, 873 F.3d 670 (9th Cir. 2017) (en banc).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Silvester v. Harris, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 22184 (9th Cir. Dec. 14, 2016).Google Scholar
Silvester v. Becerra, 138 S.Ct. 945 (2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller v. District of Columbia (Heller II), 670 F.3d 1244, 1253 (D.C. Cir. 2011).Google Scholar
See, e.g., United States v. Skoien, 614 F.3d 638, 641 (7th Cir. 2010) (en banc).Google Scholar
Giffords Law Center, Post-Heller Litigation Summary: January 2020, available at <https://lawcenter.giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PHLS-February-2020-Update.pdf>>Google Scholar
Altman at 14.Google Scholar
Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190 (1976).Google Scholar
Jacobson at 28.Google Scholar
Bateman v. Perdue, 881 F. Supp. 2d 709 (E.D.N.C. 2012)Google Scholar