Amy Coney Barrett: ‘We Do Own a Gun’ but Can Fairly Hear Second Amendment Cases

Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday revealed that her family does own a gun but said she could remain fair in cases involving the Second Amendment.

“We do own a gun,” she said, responding to a question asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

“Do you think you could fairly decide a gun case even though you own a gun?” Graham asked.

“Yes,” Barrett replied.

Barrett also spoke about the Second Amendment after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) spoke about a troubling “spike” of gun sales during the coronavirus pandemic.

Barrett said that any particular state and local gun regulation would have to survive challenges to the constitutionality in the lower courts.

She refrained from commenting on the limits on the Second Amendment but noted that the Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller left room for gun regulation.

“Heller does not make a right absolute,” she said to Feinstein, “It says so in the opinion.”

Barrett also referred to her dissenting opinion in a case Kantor v. Barr in which she defended the right of gun ownership of a nonviolent felon despite defending the right for governments to restrict guns from violent or mentally ill individuals.