Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said Wednesday he has consistently followed precedent when deciding cases that involve the Second Amendment, defending his prior opinions during a round of intense questioning by Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
The ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee spent several minutes grilling Kavanaugh on guns during his first full day of questioning on Capitol Hill.
Kavanaugh, an appellate court judge for the D.C. District Court, has drawn scrutiny from gun control advocates for his dissenting opinion in Heller v. District of Columbia. At the time, he described Washington’s ban on semi-automatic weapons as “constitutionally problematic,” even though the primary motivation of enhanced public safety was “worthy of great respect.”
On Wednesday, Kavanaugh said he used a test developed by the late Justice Antonin Scalia to reason that semi-automatic guns were commonly used in the United States and previously determined to be “lawful possessions.”
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Feinstein fired back, claiming that widespread possession does not amount to “common use” and probing Kavanaugh’s thoughts on school shootings.
“How do you reconcile what you’ve just said with the hundreds of school shootings using assault weapons that have taken place in recent history?” she asked.
Kavanaugh said such incidents are “something we all detest and want to do something about,” noting that schools across America, including the one his daughters attend, have taken different precautions to prevent such tragedies.
“Handguns and semi-automatic rifles are weapons used for hunting and self-defense, but as you say, senator, they’re used in a lot of violent crimes and cause a lot of deaths,” he said.
Kavanaugh continued: “As I said in my last two pages of dissent in Heller, I fully understand the gang violence, the gun violence, the drug violence that has plagued various cities, including Washington, D.C. I understand the issue, but as a judge, my job as I saw it, was to follow the Second Amendment opinion of the Supreme Court, whether I agreed with it or disagreed with it.”
Feinstein was the first Democrat to confront Kavanaugh about his record on issues like guns and reproductive rights. He is expected to face additional questioning on both hot-button topics in the remaining days of his confirmation hearing.
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