States are increasingly receiving federal courts’ blessing to restrict firearm access in public places that draw crowds, with the latest boost coming from a theory about protecting sold-out football stadiums full of concertgoers.
Appeals courts from the conservative Fifth Circuit to the liberal Ninth Circuit have upheld location-based firearms restrictions applying a history-focused test laid out by the US Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
The latest decision from the Third Circuit, issued Sept. 10, bolstered the theory that principles gleaned from 18th- and 19th-century laws regulating “sensitive places” provide foundation ...