The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on July 1 to decide whether the Second Amendment protects the right to own AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles, accepting two cases that challenge assault weapons bans in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, according to El Diario. Oral arguments will begin in October.
The justices will rule for the first time on whether laws banning specific categories of firearms are constitutional, El Diario reported. The outcome could affect gun restrictions in 14 states and the District of Columbia that limit access to semiautomatic weapons.
The Court’s 2022 gun ruling recognized for the first time that the Second Amendment extends to carrying firearms in public for self-defense and established a new constitutional test: governments must now show that a restriction is rooted in the country’s historical tradition of arms regulation. After that decision, the justices repeatedly declined to hear challenges to AR-15 bans in Illinois and Maryland.
Connecticut first banned assault weapons in 1993 and tightened its restrictions after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, where a gunman armed with an AR-15 and high-capacity magazines killed 26 children and teachers, El Diario reported. The state’s current law makes it a crime to possess so-called assault weapons, including certain semiautomatic rifles. State officials note that residents can still own a wide range of firearms, including multiple types of semiautomatic pistols, rifles, and shotguns.
Two groups of plaintiffs, including the National Association for Gun Rights and Connecticut residents who want to own AR-15s, sued over the restrictions on Second Amendment grounds, according to CBS News as reported by El Diario. Federal district courts declined to block the ban. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the challenges together and upheld the ban, finding it consistent with the country’s historical tradition of gun regulation. The three-judge panel called AR-type rifles “dangerous and unusual” and “particularly suited for criminal violence,” and noted that the Connecticut law still permits residents to own “many popular firearms, including semiautomatic firearms considered less dangerous by the legislature for self-defense and other lawful purposes.” Gun owners appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the ban covers “the most popular rifle in the country,” one owned by tens of millions of Americans.
Cook County, which includes Chicago, enacted its assault weapons ordinance nearly 20 years ago, El Diario reported. The ordinance bars the sale, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic rifles including the AR-15 and AK-47, as well as rifles with magazines holding more than 10 rounds and rifles with certain other features. Violations carry penalties of up to six months in prison and a minimum $5,000 fine. In August 2021, two county residents who wanted to purchase prohibited semiautomatic rifles, along with two gun rights groups, filed a lawsuit arguing the ban violates the Second Amendment. Illinois subsequently enacted its own statewide assault weapons ban, which the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld. A federal district court then rejected the separate Cook County challenge, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed that outcome.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
