In the more than 10 years since the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a fundamental right to keep a handgun for self-defense in the home, countless laws regulating firearms and their use have survived constitutional scrutiny.

Which is to say: The Supreme Court has been in no mood to expand or clarify the meaning of District of Columbia v. Heller, which the justices have interpreted to apply in all 50 states. Nor did the court take on any other Second Amendment cases in the decade after deciding the Heller case. Lower courts have read the Heller opinion as permitting all manner of gun-control measures, including bans on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.

That disinterest ended in January when a newly reconfigured Supreme Court, rounded out by the addition of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, agreed to hear New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, a quirky case the justices heard on Monday that could soon fizzle out if sanity and common sense prevail.

Justice Kavanaugh, who had made his maximalist views on the Second Amendment more than clear as an appeals judge, had nothing to say during the hourlong hearing. His silence was curious but not surprising. He had been a justice for only a few months when the Supreme Court broke its decade-long reticence on the Second Amendment by agreeing to hear the New York City case. The rookie justice may simply be laying low.