Does Judge Barrett Own a Gun?

Testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning, Judge Amy Coney Barrett was asked about whether she owns a firearm. 

"Do you own a gun," Chairman Lindsey Graham asked. 

"I do own a gun," Barrett answered. 

The question came in the context of Graham asking about the Second Amendment and her ability to have personal views on the issue that are separate from the law. 

Judge Amy Coney Barrett touches on gun rights and how judges are supposed to act:

"Judges can't just wake up one day and say 'I have an agenda. I like guns. I hate guns. I like abortion. I hate abortion.' and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world." pic.twitter.com/xbPeJDRhas

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 13, 2020

Barrett's previous writings on the Second Amendment, combined with her classification as an originalist and textualist, indicate she would be defensive of the right to keep and bear arms. 

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"Judge Barrett, unlike many of her colleagues on the circuit courts, takes the Second Amendment seriously, using the text, structure, and history of the Constitution to understand and apply the rights protected," Ilya Shapiro, director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review, told Fox News.

"If she is confirmed, John Roberts would no longer be the median or deciding vote on this issue, among others, so we can expect the court to finally start fleshing out the scope of the right to keep and bear arms and give lower courts guidance on how to evaluate Second Amendment challenges."

Barrett is known to have presided over just a couple of gun-related cases, which have been dissected to examine her projected stance on the right to bear arms. Most notably, in Kanter v. Barr, a Second Amendment case decided last year by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett "demonstrated that she understands and appreciates the need to look to the Founders to understand the full scope of Second Amendment rights," underscored Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF).