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Guns

Guns, Aliens, Indians, Registration Numbers, and John Jay

Eugene Volokh | 6.19.2026 8:01 AM

From Craghtten v. U.S., decided Wednesday by the Ninth Circuit (Judges Kenneth Lee, Gabriel Sanchez, and Holly Thomas):

Isaac Craghtten—a Canadian-born American Indian and a lawful permanent resident of the United States—tried to acquire a firearm at a gun store in Idaho. But he was unable to do so because he lacks an alien registration or admission number required of non-citizens to complete the federal Firearm Transaction Record Form 4473….

Form 4473's alien-number requirement for non-citizens comports with the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment guarantees that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." "Like most rights," however, "the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited." U.S. v.........

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