The New Republic published a preview of a coming Supreme Court case on AR-15 rifles. The piece examined a National Association for Gun Rights filing that the Second Amendment exists so citizens can resist government overreach and that forbidding the weapons that make such resistance believable could erase that restraint.

Author Matt Ford treated the filing as inventing a supposed license to kill public employees and elected leaders. He said the claim clashes with earlier rulings that confine the right to lawful uses, a limit that grows more awkward when offered as a shield against oppressive rule.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 46 that armed Americans, unlike Europeans, could join local governments they trust, form militias whose officers those governments appoint, and thereby stop federal troops from overthrowing state authority.