WASHINGTON >> Last year’s Supreme Court case that expanded Second Amendment rights has wreaked havoc on the nation’s gun control laws, witnesses told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

The hearing also showed sharp partisan divides over further steps to address gun violence. Democrats at the hearing praised President Joe Biden’s latest order on background checks and called for further restrictions, while Republicans criticized “soft-on-crime” policies they said drive gun crimes.

Since the decision came down in June, more than a half-dozen courts have tossed gun restrictions such as requirements that firearms have serial numbers and bans on possessing firearms in mass transit. An appeals court in February struck down a federal prohibition on gun possession for people subject to domestic violence restraining orders.

Those rulings relied on the Supreme Court’s focus in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, which laid out a legal test of sorts for gun regulations that looks to the history and tradition of the Second Amendment.

‘Judicial subjectivity’

Eric Ruben, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, said the Bruen decision means judges can now pick and choose what historical gun laws are analogous to modern restrictions — which has “enabled judicial subjectivity and unpredictability” about gun restrictions.

“In different cases dealing with the same laws, or even within the same case dealing with a law, courts have pointed in opposite directions about what the Second Amendment means,” Ruben said.

In Bruen, the justices struck down New York’s law about who can carry a concealed weapon. But several witnesses on the panel said rolling back gun restrictions could have real-world effects well beyond New York.

GOP view

Republicans argued that an increase in violent crime has come from “progressive prosecutors,” and local policies to reduce the prison population and change bail laws.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Democrats focus on restrictions that will affect law-abiding citizens when many gun crimes are committed by people with prior convictions or those out on bail.

“We ought not to have people that try to restrict self-defense options for good Samaritans,” Blackburn said. “They should be spending their time trying to get violent criminals off the street.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, pointed to changes in firearms enforcement in a rare law passed to address gun violence last year that have not been implicated by Bruen. The law created grants for state crisis intervention laws and provided several billion dollars in mental health and school security funding.

It also closed the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by extending a firearm ban for those convicted of domestic violence to include dating partners as well as spouses, and required more thorough background checks for gun buyers under age 21.