By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the combined cases of Viramontes v. Cook County (Illinois) and Grant v. Higgins (Connecticut) are scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 10 a.m., according to the Court calendar.
The cases, both brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and an assortment of allies, are being anticipated with high hopes and cautious optimism.
In the Viramontes case, SAF is joined by Petitioners Cutberto Viramontes, Christopher Khaya and the Firearms Policy Coalition. This is a challenge of a ban at the local level.
A statewide ban is targeted in Grant, in which SAF is joined by Petitioners Eddie Grant, Jr.; Jennifer Hamilton; Michael Stiefel and the Connecticut Citizens Defense League.
The fact that both cases involve SAF is not lost on founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, who also chairs the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. This is not for “all the marbles,” but it will come close because a favorable ruling by the high court will literally smash a cornerstone of the gun prohibition movement. Blue state legislatures, dominated by anti-gun-rights Democrats, will undoubtedly scramble to find ways to skirt around a ruling which declares AR-15 and AK-47 rifles and their clones are protected by the Second Amendment and therefore cannot be banned. At the same time, these lawmakers and Democrat governors will be joined by anti-gunners in emotional rhetoric suggesting the ruling means an end to civilization as we know it.
Such arguments will likely be made throughout the winter, ignoring the fact that rifles of any kind are actually involved in a fraction of all homicides in the U.S. in any given year, according to FBI crime data.
TheGunMag.com has reported this every year for the last quarter-century following the annual release of the FBI Uniform Crime Report. More people are actually murdered with knives, blunt instruments or even hands and feet.
As reported recently by TheGunMag.com, the 2026 National Firearms Survey released by Prof. William English, revealed the following:
- One-fourth of American gun owners—25 percent (25.0%)—currently own an AR-15 type rifle, 12.9% currently own other similarly styled semi-automatic rifles, and 30.0% – approximately 26.4 million adults – currently own at least one firearm in one of these two categories, with approximately 40 million AR-15 type rifles and 20 million other similarly styled rifles owned in total.
- More than 50 percent (50.5%) of gun owners – approximately 44.5 million adults – report that they currently own magazines that hold more than 10 rounds (approximately 539 million such magazines in total), and 88.0% of these owners cite a defensive purpose for owning them.
- An estimated 37.6% of gun owners have used a firearm to defend themselves, their property, a family member, or a member of their household, and it estimates that guns are used defensively by firearms owners in approximately 2.2 million incidents per year.
- The average gun owner owns about 5.2 firearms, and handguns are the most common type of firearm owned (91.6% of owners).
- Overall, Americans own approximately 461 million firearms, consisting of approximately 208 million handguns, 154 million rifles, and 99 million shotguns.
- Approximately 33.6 million gun owners (39.3% of those aged 21 and over) are “public carriers” who are permitted to carry and carry at least sometimes.
