Case 6:22-cv-06486-JLS Document 56 Filed 12/29/22 Page 25 of 36
of firearm regulation. Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment's unqualified command.” Id. at 2126 (citation and internal quotation omitted) (emphasis added). In other words, “the government must affirmatively prove that its firearms regulation is part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms.” Id. at 2127.
- b. Application of the Bruen Test in this Case
In this case, tracking Bruen, Spencer is an ordinary, law-abiding citizen to whom the Second Amendment applies. Id. at 2134.[1] He seeks to carry firearms for the purpose of defending himself and the Church as he goes about his daily life. As it did for the petitioners in Bruen, the Second Amendment’s plain text thus presumptively guarantees Spencer’s right to “bear” arms for self-defense outside of his own home.
Further, the State fails to demonstrate that the houses of worship exclusion is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. This Court explained in Hardaway that the houses of worship exclusion finds no analogy in Bruen’s recognized sensitive places. See Hardaway, No. 22-CV-771, 2022 WL 16646220, at *14. The same analysis and conclusion are appropriate here.
Nor is there an American tradition supporting the houses of worship exclusion. As it did in Hardaway, the State cites to a handful of enactments in an attempt to meet its “burden” to demonstrate a tradition of accepted prohibitions of
- ↑ The same holds for non-party Pruitt as well, and as to countless others.
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