"The Government … points to laws in several colonies and states that disarmed classes of people considered to be dangerous, specifically including … slaves," noted the Fifth Circuit in U.S. v. Rahimi. Applying the Supreme Court's test in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen, the court found the federal ban on gun possession by a person with a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) to lack Founding-era precedent and hence violates the Second Amendment.
In its merits brief in the Supreme Court, the Government drops any mention of slavery like a hot potato. However, it cannot escape the racist taint of so many historical gun laws. It approvingly cites California's "Greaser Act" of 1855 which provided: "All persons who are commonly known as 'Greasers' or the issue of Spanish and Indian blood, … and who go armed and are not known to be peaceable and quiet persons, and who give no good account of themselves, may be disarmed by any lawful officer, and punished otherwise as provided in the foregoing section." That was 90 days at hard labor.
The Second Amendment recognizes the preexisting "right of the people to keep and bear arms," which laws like the above violated. The Government devotes several pages under the heading: "History confirms that Congress may disarm persons who are not law-abiding, responsible citizens." While Bruen made reference to "law-abiding, responsible citizens," it did not purport to substitute that term for "the people." As the Greaser Act illustrates, the Government places no limit on what laws are passed and thus who is "law-abiding."
