By Tanya Metaksa
PREVIOUSLY IN THE LEGISLATIVE REPORT: Scotus: The Supreme Court ruled last Thursday 6-3 in Wolford v. Lopez that Hawaii’s “vampire rule” — requiring concealed carry permit holders to obtain express permission from property owners before entering any private property open to the public — violates the Second Amendment; Federal: States: Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduces Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act: California: Three awaiting more votes in the Senate on June 23; Politics: California Primary election: The two candidates advancing to the November general election are Xavier Becerra (D) and Steve Hilton( R); Montana: Ryan Busse, the former firearms industry executive turned Gifford’s gun control activist, ran in the Democratic primary for the state’s open First Congressional District seat and lost; Is the New Jersey Attorney General trying to bankrupt gun stores?
SCOTUS
Wolford v. Lopez, No. 24-1046: Challenge to Hawaii’s prohibition on carrying firearms onto private property without the owner’s consent. The Ninth Circuit upheld the law based on the historical tradition of default rules for private property.
Decided 6-3 on June 25, 2026
- The Vampire Rule is Dead
The Supreme Court rules 6-3 in Wolford v. Lopez that Hawaii’s “vampire rule” — requiring concealed carry permit holders to obtain express permission from property owners before entering any private property open to the public — violates the Second Amendment. - The Ruling Explained
Justice Alito, writing for the majority, explains that Hawaii’s law inverted the common law default: under normal rules, anyone (including lawful gun carriers) may enter property open to the public unless expressly prohibited, but Hawaii flipped this to require affirmative permission. - Spirit of Aloha Argument Destroyed
Hawaii argued its unique anti-gun cultural tradition — the “Spirit of Aloha” — justified the law, citing restrictions dating back to King Kamehameha III in 1833. Justice Alito flatly rejected this, holding that the Second Amendment has identical meaning in all 50 states and local attitudes cannot alter fundamental constitutional rights. - Plain Text vs. Historical Tradition
In this case the critical methodological point was reaffirmed by the Court: the Bruen two-step analysis requires courts to first assess whether a law clashes with the plain text of the Second Amendment (a linguistics inquiry), and only then assess historical tradition — with the burden on the government at the history stage. - Lower Courts Caught Smuggling History into Plain Text
Justice Barrett’s concurrence (footnote 1) directly addresses and condemns the practice of lower courts — particularly the 4th, 2nd, and 9th Circuits — “smuggling” historical tradition analysis into the plain text stage in order to keep the burden on Second Amendment claimants rather than the government.
We will go into more depth on this extremely important decision for Second Amendment jurisprudence in the next Judicial Report.
New for Monday: Federal
Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduces: Gun Records Restoration and Preservation Act
This Senate measure would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment—a provision of the DOJ’s 2003 appropriations bill that currently bars the ATF’s National Tracing Center from sharing firearm trace data with anyone outside law enforcement or prosecutors involved in a criminal investigation. Essentially, the bill would remove the main federal legal obstacle that separates lawful gun owners from a comprehensive federal gun registry.
The Bill’s Four Key Provisions
- Repeal provisions requiring all background check records to be destroyed within 24 hours
- Eliminate the prohibition on processing FOIA requests about firearm traces
- Remove limitations preventing the ATF from requiring gun dealers to conduct annual inventory audits
- Eliminate the prohibition on the DOJ’s consolidation of firearms acquisition records maintained by federal firearms licensees
The Gun Registry Problem
The NRA has previously argued that releasing trace data “serves no useful purpose,” pointing to the Congressional Research Service’s repeated findings that “firearm trace data may be biased” and “cannot be used to test for statistical significance” between traced firearms and the wider population. Importantly, traced firearms are not always “crime guns” — the ATF’s own trace request form includes crime codes for traffic offenses and election law violations.
Who Is Harmed vs. Who Is Targeted
If anti-gun groups obtain Tiahrt-protected data, they will use it to target urban gun stores and high-volume retailers in civil “lawfare” suits, alleging that a high number of trace requests suggests careless transfers to criminals. The ATF itself and the Fraternal Order of Police have both historically opposed releasing trace data, and the ATF has litigated in federal courts for years to keep trace records confidential.
This bill essentially creates a de facto registry of legal gun owners — treating normal, lawful firearm purchases as potentially suspicious and establishing data systems that could be exploited through civil lawsuits, regulatory overreach, or future confiscation. The bill is presented as a public safety measure, but in reality, it centralizes and reveals the acquisition records of law-abiding Americans.
The Biden Administration violated the Tiahrt Amendment multiple times, including an incident where the ATF accidentally sent Gun Owners of America unredacted FOIA documents, then obtained a court-mandated gag order to stop GOA from using the information.
State Legislatures
Arizona: Governor Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed SB1068 and SB1069 for the third time. Those Arizona legislators are to be commended for their diligence in passing these laws year after year after year.
On the plus side, Hobbs signed House Bill 2763, protecting the Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix and similar gun ranges from development. (See the TGM report here.)
California: The California legislature still manages to produce more anti-Second Amendment legislation.
Week of June 23, 2026:
Three bills advanced to the State Senate for a vote:
- AB 1743, AB 1753, AB 1810.
- AB 2047—Senate Judiciary Committee — June 23, advanced to the Senate Public Safety Committee.
- Senate Bill 948–is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 30, expands California’s Firearm Safety Certificate (FSC) to a minimum four-hour training course beginning in 2028. It mandates live-fire and the state will develop classroom instruction.
Politics
California Primary Election
Governor’s Race
The two candidates advancing to the November general election are Xavier Becerra (D) and Steve Hilton (R). Becerra, a former U.S. Secretary of HHS and California Attorney General, who led the field with 28.1% of the vote (about 2.58 million votes). Trump-endorsed former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton finished second with 24.7% (around 2.27 million votes).
CA-14 Special Election
Unfortunately, both candidates are very anti-Second Amendment.
Montana Primary
Congratulations to Montana Democrats
Ryan Busse, the former firearms industry executive turned Gifford’s gun control activist, decided to run for Congress in Montana in 2026. He opted to run in the Democratic primary for the state’s open First Congressional District seat — created by Rep. Ryan Zinke’s decision not to seek reelection, but Busse’s “I support the Second Amendment, but…” pitch fell flat. Voters instead chose Sam Forstag as the Democratic nominee.
A Pattern of Rejection
This loss continues a familiar story for Busse. We covered his first attempt at politics, when he ran against Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte on a platform that included a ban on Modern Sporting Rifles. Montana voters in 2024 rejected him by nearly 20 percentage points. In a state that leads the nation in per-capita gun ownership, and during hunting season, many businesses are short-staffed or closed.
Busse spent 25 years working for a firearms manufacturer — overseeing production of more than 2.3 million rifles, pistols, and revolvers — before departing to take a paid senior advisory role at GIFFORDS. He leveraged that position into media appearances and a book promoting his conversion to the gun control cause. Montana voters were unmoved, then and now.
The outgoing Zinke, by contrast, earned an A+ on NSSF’s 2024 Congressional Report Card and NRA Political Victory Fund grades— a fitting symbol of how far apart the two men stand on Second Amendment issues.
Who is running for Congress in 2026?
With Busse’s primary loss, the general election sets up another clear contrast. Aaron Flint, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, two-time Bronze Star recipient, and longtime radio host on Montana Talks, secured the Republican nomination. Flint has the endorsements of Senators Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy, and President Donald Trump. He will face Forstag, who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Meanwhile, with Daines retiring from the U.S. Senate, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme is the Republican frontrunner for the open seat, running on a platform of support for the Second Amendment and border security.
Montana voters have twice rejected gun control at the ballot box. Come November, they’ll have a third opportunity to repeat.
Is the New Jersey Attorney General trying to bankrupt gun stores?
Attorney Tom Grieve, who has a YouTube channel, has posted a chilling story. New Jersey gun owners who have purchased Glocks from NJ FFLs are about to be doxxed. The new NJ Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, who was appointed by Governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who took office on January 20, 2026, has sent subpoenas to approximately 15 licensed firearm dealers, demanding full customer records for all Glock pistol sales from January 2016 through mid-2026, including buyer name, address, date of sale, make, model, serial number, caliber, and whether the buyer was civilian or law enforcement.
The subpoenas stem from a public nuisance lawsuit originally filed by prior AG Matthew Platkin against Glock, State of New Jersey v. Glock, Inc., bearing case number ESX-C-000286-24, filed in Essex County Superior Court. Davenport has continued and escalated the lawsuit. The state judge refused to dismiss the case and allowed discovery to proceed, giving the AG the legal leverage to issue these demands.
According to an NRA-ILA article, “these records are unconnected to the theory of the state’s case. Buyer records are legally irrelevant to the lawsuit’s actual theory, which targets Glock’s design and marketing practices, not individual purchasers.” There is no legitimate legal reason why John Smith’s lawful Glock purchase 5 years ago is relevant to the state’s case. This is being done solely for the purpose of harassing and doxxing residents who purchased the most popular pistol in America.” FFLs have a response deadline around July 1, 2026.
Grieve argues the subpoenas serve ulterior motives: (1) they are legally irrelevant to the case; (2) NJ already maintains its own de facto handgun registry through its permitting system, making dealer records largely redundant; and (3) the real goal appears to be financially burdening gun stores, forcing them to hire attorneys, spend resources, and potentially expose owner data publicly — all to suppress Second Amendment commerce through cost and fear. Whoever lives in NJ and has legally purchased a Glock in the last 10 years may find that their FFL has been pressured to disclose their information.
