Lance Rankin here, gunsmith and FFL at Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas. Let me tell you what “yesterday” means in that headline, because it deserves to be spelled out: the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to state bans on semi-automatic rifles. After years of the Court sidestepping the question, the AR-15 issue is finally on the docket. That’s the news, that’s real progress for Second Amendment rights, and the video below digs into it.
What the Court actually did
Several challenges to state rifle bans were sitting in the pipeline. Rather than take them all, the Court selected specific cases to hear while leaving others pending, which is how it usually builds precedent: decide the lead case cleanly, then let the rest fall in line behind it. Oral arguments are expected in the fall term. As of this writing, no ruling exists yet, so treat everything from here as a preview, not a result. I wrote a fuller breakdown of the stakes in SCOTUS is about to decide if states can ban your AR-15.
Why I’m calling this Second Amendment rights progress a beginning, not a victory
Because the gun community has a habit of only counting losses, it’s worth pausing on how much has actually moved in a few years. The Rahimi decision, whatever you think of its outcome, left the Bruen text-and-history framework standing, and that framework is the whole reason rifle bans are now vulnerable. The Department of Justice has started treating Second Amendment cases as civil rights cases, including suing California over its handgun roster. And constitutional carry has spread to more than half the states, Texas among them; the doom predicted by critics keeps failing to show up in the places that adopted it.
None of that happened by accident. This progress on Second Amendment rights is the result of years of litigation, funded largely by ordinary gun owners’ memberships and donations. Yesterday’s cert grant is that machine working.
The clear-eyed part
I run a gun shop, not a pep rally, so here’s the honest caveat. A cert grant is not a win. The Court could rule narrowly, or badly. And even a strong ruling gets met with the post-Bruen playbook: restrictive states rewrite the same ban under a new name and dare plaintiffs to spend five more years in court. Progress on Second Amendment rights is real, and so is the resistance to it. Both things are true.
What to do while we wait
Stay informed and check the current status of these cases rather than trusting a months-old blog post, including this one. Support the legal organizations doing the actual work. And exercise the rights you have. Here in Texas that’s easy; if you’re new, start with how to buy a gun in Texas, and if you carry, know your state’s rules cold.
I’ll post again when arguments happen and when the ruling drops. Until then, the shop’s open, and I’m at [email protected] or 817-393-4000 if you’ve got questions.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
