Two federal courts ruled on Wednesday, October 21, that the Second Amendment reaches past firearms. Fox News reported both decisions on Saturday.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Switchblade Act’s restrictions on interstate commerce in automatic knives. The court held that switchblades are commonly used “arms” and that the government had not shown a sufficient historical tradition of regulating them that way.

The same day, a federal judge in the Western District of New York struck down New York’s restrictions on civilian purchase of personal body armor. The state had argued body armor is a firearm accessory rather than an arm. The court rejected that and found New York had shown no historical tradition supporting the ban.

Both rulings run through the same two cases.

District of Columbia v. Heller, decided in 2008, described “arms” as covering both offensive weapons and defensive armor. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen set the test courts now apply: first ask whether the Second Amendment’s text covers the conduct, and if it does, require the government to produce a historical tradition of comparable regulation.

That second step is doing most of the work here. As Second Amendment attorney George Lyon put it, once conduct falls within the text, “the presumption is that the regulation is unconstitutional.”

Justin Davis, director of public affairs at the National Rifle Association, framed what is actually being contested: “there’s a major discussion going on in the courts about what is and what aren’t arms.”

Which brings it to the case that will settle a great deal of this.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Viramontes v. Cook County, a challenge to that county’s ban on semiautomatic rifles. The Seventh Circuit held that AR-15-style rifles are comparable to machine guns and therefore are not protected arms at all. The question for the justices is whether that squares with Heller and Bruen.

Dudley Brown, president of the National Association for Gun Rights, expects the knife and body armor questions to ride on it: both cases “are both going to be really decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Viramontes decision.”

Reporting on when argument will be heard has not been consistent, and no date has been confirmed here. A decision would be expected by the end of the term.

If the Court holds that a rifle in common use is an arm, the reasoning that protected a knife and a vest last Wednesday applies to magazines, to body armor and to a long list of equipment currently restricted by states.