Legal Report: U.S. Supreme Court Rulings on Firearm Cases
Security Management’s Legal Report is a monthly column that highlights the instances where legal matters intersect with the security industry. Our team tracks court cases, new and developing legislation, and regulatory decisions or investigations that affect private organizations and security professionals worldwide.
To share a tip or notify Security Management about emerging legal issues, email Associate Editor Sara Mosqueda at [email protected].
Judicial Decisions
United States
Firearms. The U.S. Supreme Court supported federal limits on access to ghost gun kits—sets that enable users to assemble homemade and largely untraceable firearms.
The 7-2 decision upheld rules established by the Biden administration in 2022, which restricted access to the weapons kits. The rules were enacted after law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, found that ghost guns were becoming increasingly popular.
The rules stipulate that vendors and gun manufacturers must be licensed to sell such kits, as well as ordering that ghost gun components include serial numbers, which would allow the weapons to be tracked. (Bondi v. VanDerStok, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 23-852, 2025)
In another case related to firearms, in June, the Court declined to hear a challenge to a Maryland law that bans semiautomatic rifles. The decision will uphold the ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which found that the Maryland law did not violate the Second Amendment because such guns are excessive for the purposes of self-defense.
“It is but another example of a state regulating excessively dangerous weapons once their incompatibility with a lawful and safe society becomes apparent, while nonetheless preserving avenues for armed self-defense,” Circuit Judge Harvie Wilkinson III wrote for the majority opinion.
Maryland’s ban has been in effect since 2013; it was created in response to the mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in 2012. The ban outlaws several semiautomatic rifles, including the popular AR-15 and AK-47, and on firearms with magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. (Snope v. Brown, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 21-1255, 2025)
A third decision from the Court was the reversal of a federal appeals court ruling that held U.S. gun manufacturers and a wholesaler liable for cartel gun violence in Mexico.
In 2021, the Mexican government sued seven major U.S. firearm manufacturers and one gun wholesaler, claiming that their production and marketing of military-style weapons, along with their distribution system, made their products attractive and ultimately available to anyone, including people who cannot legally purchase a gun but could use buyers acting as a frontperson in a sale. The Mexican government brought the suit to stop the marketing and trafficking of illegal guns in Mexico, as well as generate billions of dollars in compensation for the costs associated with gun violence.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit determined that Mexico’s arguments were aligned with an exemption that allows parties to sue when a gun maker or seller knowingly violates a federal or state law that impacts the sale or marketing of its guns.
However, the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the gun makers and wholesaler, reversing the 1st Circuit Court’s decision. In a unanimous decision, the court determined that the Mexican government failed to prove that the manufacturers and seller intended the illegal sales to happen—or in Justice Elena Kagan’s words, the government only claimed that the makers and wholesaler had an “indifference” to end users’ or third parties’ criminal use of their products. (Smith & Wesson Brands, et al., v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 22-1823, 2025)
Discrimination. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Marlean Ames, who claimed that she had been discriminated against by a previous employer, regardless of belonging to a majority group as a straight woman. Ames previously lost out on promotions and positions twice to less-senior gay workers.
With the ruling, the court said that a federal civil rights law—Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—asks that all individuals be treated equally, eliminating a previous and more demanding standard for men, white people, and other majority group members to prove when claiming workplace discrimination. (Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 23-1039, 2025)
Active shooter. Robert Crimo III—the mass shooter in the 2022 attack at a Fourth of July parade in a suburb of Chicago that left seven people dead—was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Crimo, who had admitted to being the shooter and pled guilty, declined to appear at the sentencing hearing at the 19th Judicial Circuit Court for Lake County, despite the judge warning him that the case would proceed even in his absence, according to the Associated Press.
Crimo received consecutive life sentences for each of the seven people he killed—Katherine Goldstein, Kevin and Irina McCarthy, Stephen Straus, Jacquelyn Sundheim, Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, and Eduardo Uvaldo—as well as one 50-year sentence that would also be served consecutively. The judge also ordered that he serve another 47 concurrent 50-year sentences. (People v. Crimo, Robert, E., III, 19th Circuit Court for Illinois, No. 22-CF-1130, 2025)
Utilities security. A federal court sentenced Monte Smith to 150 months in prison for two counts of the destruction of an energy facility.
Smith, a Canadian citizen, pled guilty to damaging the Wheelock Substation in North Dakota in May 2023. The substation is operated by Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative. He also pled guilty to damaging facilities owned by Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota in July 2022. Smith used a high-power rifle to fire on equipment, which in turn disrupted electric services to customers in North Dakota.
The court also ordered Smith to pay $2.1 million for restitution of the damage. (United States v. Smith, U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, No. 23-cr-00118, 2025)
Legislation
Australia
Weapons. A temporary ban is in place in Victoria, prohibiting the sale of machetes throughout the state ahead of its planned changes to the Control of Weapons Act.
The ban became effective in late May after a fight at a shopping center broke out between two rival gangs that involved machetes. The ban defines machetes broadly as large-bladed cutting knives, although kitchen knives are exempt from the ban.
The ban is expected to be lifted with the enactment of the amended Control of Weapons Act in September 2025, at which point the new law will altogether outlaw the sale or possession of machetes.
Through an amnesty program, anyone in possession of a machete has three months from the law’s enactment to surrender the weapon in designated boxes at police stations.
U.S. States
Gun control. The governor of Colorado signed a law that makes it illegal to buy, sell, and produce most semi-automatic firearms without clearing at least one background check and completing training.
For anyone looking to own or deal with such weapons, the person must pass a background check and be issued an eligibility card at a county sheriff’s discretion. With the eligibility card, a person can then pass a 12-hour safety certification course overseen by the state’s Parks and Wildlife Department. Anyone who has already completed a hunters’ training course can instead complete a four-hour safety certification course.
Upon completion of the safety course, an individual’s name would be added to a state database, which allows him or her to purchase a firearm pending a dealer’s background check.
The law also bans devices—for example, bump stocks—that allow semiautomatic weapons, such as AK-47 rifles, to operate like an automatic firearm. The law would restrict new purchases beginning August 2026.
The bill, SB25-003, was initially sponsored by Representative Tom Sullivan, whose late son Alex was one of the victims of the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora in 2012. The original bill banned all assault weapons; however, several amendments were negotiated into the bill.
Regulations
France
Privacy. The French Competition Authority fined Apple €150 million ($162 million) because of the introduction of a privacy feature meant to protect users from apps surveilling them resulted in violating the country’s competition law.
The watchdog “found that while the objective of the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework is not at its core problematic, how ATT is implemented is neither necessary for, nor proportionate with, Apple’s stated objective of protecting personal data,” the authority said.
Apple’s ATT feature, which was introduced in April 2021, requires apps on iOS devices to ask users for their explicit permission to collect data to deliver targeted or personalized ads to users. The watchdog noted that ATT was a “a particularly harmful framework” for smaller app developers and publishers because they largely depend on the collection of third-party data to financially support the app. (Décision n° 25-D-02 du 31 mars 2025 relative à des pratiques mises en œuvre dans le secteur de la publicité sur applications mobiles sur les terminaux iOS, Autorité de la concurrence, No. 25-D-02, 2025)
Ireland
Data privacy. The EU’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced a final decision on an investigation into TikTok, fining the video and social media company €530 million ($597.7 million) over the transfer of EU users’ data to China.
After a four-year investigation, the commission determined at the beginning of May that the company had breached EU’s data privacy rules under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and placed users at risk of surveillance.
The DPC found that the company failed to properly inform users about which nations, including China, that personal data was transferred to. “TikTok’s personal data transfers to China infringed the GDPR because TikTok failed to verify, guarantee, and demonstrate that the personal data of [EU] users, remotely afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” said Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle in a statement.
Along with the monetary fine, the DPC ordered the company to comply with GDPR rules within six months.
Also of Interest
Security Management tracks court cases, bills, laws, and regulatory issues that impact the security industry. Here are some of the stories that are of current interest.
Cybersecurity regulations. Two U.S. Senators—Sen. Gary Peters (D-MIand Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)—have reintroduced a bill that proposes creating an executive branch panel to organize conflicting cybersecurity regulations imposed on the private sector.
Executive protection. Shareholders filed a class action lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group in May, claiming that the company hid how backlash from the murder of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson damaged the insurer and negatively impacted its stock value.
Federal contractors. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would require the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Defense to prevent cybersecurity vulnerabilities from federal contractors. The Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act of 2025 (HR 872) would require the federal agencies to order contractors to apply vulnerability disclosure policies consistent with guidance from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).
Gun violence. Texas law enforcement arrested and charged a woman for buying her teenage son ammunition and tactical gear. The 13-year-old boy—who had been suspended from his school in April for allegedly researching mass shootings on school grounds—was also arrested and charged with terrorism. His mother, Ashley Pardo, was charged with a felony count of aiding in the commission of terrorism.
Cultural property. The Indian government threatened auction house Sotheby’s with legal action over the company’s attempt to auction off hundreds of sacred jewels (the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha Mauryan Empire) linked to the Buddha’s remains. In response to the Indian government’s claims that the jewels are part of India’s heritage, as well as that of the global Buddhist community, and that the sale would violate international laws, Sotheby’s opted to postpone their sale and discuss the matter with interested parties.
