2.2 Million Times a Year: This Week in 2A - September 8, 2026
2026-09-08 by Brass Kisses
Sheridan, Wyoming - your weekly 2A briefing from Brass Kisses. Hope your Labor Day involved something grilled and something American-made. Now - to the news.
POSITIVE 2A STORIES (the good stuff first, always)
2.2 million. Write it down. Georgetown professor William English released his 2026 National Firearms Survey, and the number is louder than anything we load: Americans use firearms defensively about 2.2 million times a year - up from his 2021 estimate of 1.67 million. And here's the kicker the evening news will never run: in 81.9% of those incidents, no shot was ever fired (Bearing Arms, Sept. 2). The gun that saves your life usually never goes bang. English took subpoenas and media pile-ons for publishing the 2021 numbers - he ran it again anyway. That's punk rock.
The receipts, in real time. PJ Media catalogued ten armed-citizen saves from August alone - Alabama to Utah to Virginia. Two of the freshest: in Cedar Hill, Texas (Aug. 31), a bank customer stopped a knife-wielding robber mid-heist at a Chase branch (CBS Texas, NBC DFW). And in Pomona, California (Aug. 30), a defender with a shotgun sent four masked jewelry-store robbers sprinting for the door (The Armed Citizen, Sept. 4, via the San Gabriel Valley Tribune). 2.2 million isn't a statistic. It's neighbors.
2A WINS
SCOTUS circled the date: December 2. The Supreme Court set oral arguments for Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2026 in the consolidated AR-15 ban cases - Viramontes v. Cook County (Illinois) and Grant v. Higgins (Connecticut). Bigger still: the Justice Department filed a 40-page amicus brief on the gun owners' side, signed by the Solicitor General, that puts it in five words - "Those bans are unconstitutional" (AmmoLand, Sept. 6). Ruling expected by June 2027. Mark your calendars; we'll be covering it like a title fight.
ATF took its own test - and the dealers passed. First real-world clarity since the August NFA injunction: at least four FFLs that transferred suppressors on a standard 4473 (no Form 4) got ATF compliance inspections - zero violations cited on the covered transfers. ATF Director Robert Cekada, Aug. 29: "ATF respects the Court's ruling and the rule of law… we will not take enforcement action against protected parties inconsistent with that ruling," with formal written guidance in development (Shooting News Weekly, Sept. 4). Reminder: the injunction covers named plaintiffs and their members/customers, not the whole country - know your status before you buy.
2A ISSUES / THREATS
California went quiet - and that's not comforting. Sacramento adjourned and sent the six-pack to Gov. Newsom's desk: AB 1753 (ammo added to red-flag orders), AB 1974 ("voluntary" state firearm storage), AB 2047 (3D-printer restrictions requiring blocking tech that critics say doesn't exist), SB 948 (mandatory live-fire training to buy), SB 1220, and AB 1743 (expanded gun-owner data access) (NRA-ILA, Sept. 1). The decision deadline came and went with no announcement as of press time (Bearing Arms, Sept. 2).
New York's Glock ban is now a full docket. The NRA joined the fight with its own federal lawsuit against New York's ban on Glock-style handguns (NRA-ILA, Aug. 14), stacking on SAF's challenge, with national coverage still building (Outdoor News, Sept. 1). The most popular handgun in America is banned in New York. Let the courts chew on that sentence.
2A DEBATES
Colorado's 3-day waiting period: verdict watch. Judge John Kane heard final arguments Aug. 24 (Colorado Springs Gazette); no ruling yet. He denied the preliminary injunction back in 2023, so nobody's holding their breath for a reversal at this level - the real fight is the Tenth Circuit, where the Ortega waiting-period precedent (the one that killed New Mexico's 7-day wait) cuts the other way.
New Mexico's "win with an asterisk," still unresolved. The final judgment against NM's 7-day wait formally protects the named plaintiffs - but the state is still enforcing the wait against most buyers, and the confusion hasn't cleared (Bearing Arms, Aug. 28). What did gun owners actually win? Watch this space.
BRASS KISSES CORNER
Labor Day hits different when your product is American-made. Thanks to everyone who spent the long weekend at the range instead of the couch. Looking ahead: GRPC 2026 lands in Fort Worth Sept. 25-27, and the 2A calendar is heating up all the way to that December 2 Supreme Court date. We are in discussion with the War Banner Foundation about ways to serve the veteran community together. Find Brass Kisses at a dealer near you on our Where to Buy page.
Kiss My Brass.