The year 2025 was an active one for the Second Amendment debate.
Gun rights activists hailed President Donald Trump’s gun policies, although some have said that his Department of Justice is sending mixed messages on the right to keep and bear arms.
Gun control proponents decry the loss of key planks of President Joe Biden’s agenda even as they make gains in some states that are considered “gun friendly.”
The courts have been busy with lawsuits filed over laws passed in response to the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
In Bruen, the court held that gun laws must have a historical analogue and that Americans have a right to carry arms for self-defense.
Several states passed so-called Bruen response laws, which are stricter laws designed to comply with Bruen.
It has generally been legal to be armed on private property open to the public—such as a business—unless the owner prohibits it. In 2023, Hawaii made all businesses gun-free zones unless the owner gives express permission.
In Wolford v. Lopez, gun owners challenged this law, which was eventually upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Other appeals benches, such as the Second Circuit Court, ruled similar laws unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case in 2026.
In the Texas case United States v. Hemani, the high court will determine whether banning drug users from owning guns is constitutional.
In that case, the defendant was a marijuana and cocaine user, and there were allegations that his family had ties to terrorist organizations.
Gun control advocates say the law keeps guns away from criminals. Gun rights proponents have expressed concern that it will be used to write blanket bans on certain groups based on political ideology.
Both sides of the gun control debate are waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether a ban on certain semiautomatic rifles, so-called assault weapons, is constitutional.
In June 2025, the high court turned away challenges to Maryland’s ban on semiautomatic rifles such as the AR-15 and a Rhode Island prohibition of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
Three justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—dissented, indicating that they would have heard the cases.
Cody Wisniewski, representing the Firearms Policy Coalition, expressed disappointment with the refusal. However, Thomas and Justice Brett Kavanaugh made clear this was not the last word, Wisniewski said.
“Thomas had indicated in a separate opinion that they wanted to tee up the issue of AR-15s specifically,” he told The Epoch Times. “There are more cases … pending before the court right now on that issue. They have the opportunity.”
John Commerford, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, said the association is involved in 60 lawsuits that could go before the Supreme Court.
He said there is plenty of interest in settling the weapons ban question, sometimes called “hardware cases.”
“We’ve had a big change in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. We saw them take [a] hardware case … directly en banc on their own,” Commerford told The Epoch Times.
The term en banc means the entire court, rather than a small group, presides over a case.
One such case, Cheeseman v. Platkin, is a challenge to New Jersey’s ban on AR-15-style rifles and magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Commerford said he believes the Supreme Court justices may be willing to hear it if it is brought before them.
In the past year, the number of states that allow those who can legally own a firearm to carry it in public, so-called constitutional carry, has grown to 29. North Carolina could become the 30th state if its Republican-dominated House of Representatives votes in January to override a veto issued by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein in June 2025.
Gun control activists have also been busy. Gun control organizations did not respond to requests for comment. But one group has tracked their progress.
GIFFORDS was started by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot while meeting constituents in Tucson, Arizona, on Jan. 8, 2011. She cofounded the gun control group Americans for Responsible Solutions after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2013. She renamed it GIFFORDS in 2017.
The GIFFORDS website reports that 33 states enacted 89 bills in 2025 aimed at enhancing safety and preventing deaths and injuries involving firearms.
According to the website, two states enacted laws to hold the firearms industry accountable. Connecticut enacted HB 7042, a law designed to make it easier to “allow litigation against gun companies when they fail to exercise reasonable control over their products.”
Colorado passed several laws, including SB 158, to require the state to take steps to ensure that dealers have complied with the law and have clean safety records before contracting with them.
According to GIFFORDS, Washington and Colorado passed laws to prevent people who may be a danger to themselves or others from buying guns.
Alabama, California, Indiana, Maine, New York, North Dakota, and Texas either enacted new extreme risk protection orders (often called Red Flag Laws) or strengthened their existing laws, the website reported.
California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Tennessee were among the states enacting hardware bans. These included banning certain types of weapons, such as assault weapon bans in Rhode Island and Colorado, and prohibitions on devices that increase a gun’s rate of fire, in Tennessee, New Mexico, and Alabama.
Other states instituted gun storage requirements and provided incentives for nonprofits to distribute free gun locks, and the Louisiana Legislature called for a report on gun storage and deaths of children involving guns.
According to the website, 22 states funded community violence intervention programs in their state budgets.
“Gun safety is getting stronger, and the gun lobby is running up against more and more resistance to its proposals,” the GIFFORDS website states.
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