Second Amendment does not prohibit serial number obliteration prosecution

When the Supreme Court in 2008 ruled that the Second Amendment recognizes a personal right of gun ownership, it not only opened the door to lawsuits challenging gun-control regulations. We've seen that share of cases reach the Second Circuit. This case, however, is a criminal manner in which the defendant was charged with a gun-related offense. He was found guilty but now challenges the judgment under the Second Amendment.

The case is United States v, Gomez, issued on November 17. Defendant was charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He argues now that the Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), many gun regulations are subject to review because the Supreme Court will strike them down unless similar laws were on the books when the Bill of Rights were adopted in 1791. Since the constitutional framers did not anticipate every problem that might have arisen over 200 years later, many gun laws will be stricken under Bruen.

But not this one. The statute here makes it illegal to remove or tamper with the serial number on a gun that may enter interstate commerce. Was there anything like this on the books when the Constitution was drafted all those years ago? The Court of Appeals (Kearse, Jacobs and Lohier) notes that individual self defense is the central right promoted under the Second Amendment. The issue, then, is whether this statute infringes on the right of self defense. It does not. Protecting the integrity of the serial number "merely regulates a nonfunctional feature: the serial number." The defendant was able to defend himself without removing or altering the serial number.