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New York Times
4 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Supreme Court Turns Down Challenge to Ban on Semiautomatic Rifles
The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear a major Second Amendment challenge to a Maryland law banning semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15. As is the court's practice, its brief order gave no reasons. The move, over the objections of three conservative justices, let the ban stand and reflected the court's intermittent engagement with gun rights. It has issued only three significant Second Amendment decisions since recognizing an individual right to own guns in 2008. The Maryland law was enacted in 2013 in response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut the previous year. It banned many semiautomatic rifles and imposed a 10-round limit on gun magazines. In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should have considered the question, which the justices have repeatedly declined to resolve. 'I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America,' he wrote. 'That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR-15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade.' He added that the court's commitment to the Second Amendment was inadequate. 'I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right,' he wrote. 'Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain 'a second-class right.'' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Supreme Court won't hear challenge to Maryland assault weapons ban
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to a state ban on assault weapons, semiautomatic rifles that are popular among gun owners and have also been used in multiple mass shootings. The justices turned down a case against a Maryland law passed after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six adults. The shooter was armed with an AR-15 , one of the firearms commonly referred to as an assault weapon.
CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
Supreme Court leaves in place state bans on some semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity gun magazines
The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear arguments in a significant Second Amendment challenge to Maryland's ban on certain semi-automatic weapons, a move that leaves the state's law in place. Maryland's ban, enacted after the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, prohibits the sale or ownership of certain semi-automatic weapons such as AR- and AK-style rifles. The law was challenged by David Snope, a state resident who wants to purchase those rifles for self-defense and other purposes. The Supreme Court also declined to hear a challenge over Rhode Island's ban on high-capacity gun magazines, leaving that law in place. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented from the court's decision not to hear the pair of cases. The 2022 Rhode Island law prohibits the possession of large-capacity feeding devices or magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. It requires owners of such devices to either modify them to fit the 10-round limit, sell them to a firearms dealer, remove them from Rhode Island or hand them over to law enforcement. The law required such action to be taken within 180 days of its passage, after which time violators faced up to five years in prison. In the Maryland case involving automatic rifles, the Richmond-based federal appeals court upheld Maryland's law over the summer, finding that the guns at issue are 'dangerous and unusual weapons' and therefore are not covered by the Second Amendment's protections. The majority also concluded that there were historical analogues to the Maryland statute that were adopted by state legislatures across the country in the 19th and 20th century.
CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
Supreme Court leaves in place state bans on some semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity gun magazines
The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear arguments in a significant Second Amendment challenge to Maryland's ban on certain semi-automatic weapons, a move that leaves the state's law in place. Maryland's ban, enacted after the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, prohibits the sale or ownership of certain semi-automatic weapons such as AR- and AK-style rifles. The law was challenged by David Snope, a state resident who wants to purchase those rifles for self-defense and other purposes. The Supreme Court also declined to hear a challenge over Rhode Island's ban on high-capacity gun magazines, leaving that law in place. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented from the court's decision not to hear the pair of cases. The 2022 Rhode Island law prohibits the possession of large-capacity feeding devices or magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. It requires owners of such devices to either modify them to fit the 10-round limit, sell them to a firearms dealer, remove them from Rhode Island or hand them over to law enforcement. The law required such action to be taken within 180 days of its passage, after which time violators faced up to five years in prison. In the Maryland case involving automatic rifles, the Richmond-based federal appeals court upheld Maryland's law over the summer, finding that the guns at issue are 'dangerous and unusual weapons' and therefore are not covered by the Second Amendment's protections. The majority also concluded that there were historical analogues to the Maryland statute that were adopted by state legislatures across the country in the 19th and 20th century.
CBS News
4 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Supreme Court rejects challenge to Maryland's assault weapons ban
Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a challenge to Maryland's ban on so-called assault weapons, leaving intact a lower court ruling that upheld the law. In declining to review the decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, the high court skirts a fight over whether the Second Amendment allows states to regulate the rifles that have been used in a wave of mass shootings. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch disagreed with the Supreme Court's decision to turn away the case. The Supreme Court had already turned away the legal battle over Maryland's law last year because a federal appeals court had yet to rule. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit upheld the measure last August, finding that weapons like the AR-15 could be banned in part because they are outside the scope of the Second Amendment. Maryland's prohibition on certain semiautomatic rifles was enacted in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Under the law, it is a crime to possess, sell, transfer or purchase an "assault long gun" or a "copycat weapon," which encompasses 45 specific guns or their analogues. A variety of semiautomatic handguns and rifles are still allowed, according to the Maryland State Police. In addition to Maryland, nine other states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws restricting semiautomatic weapons. A group of Maryland residents who want to buy rifles covered by the ban, a licensed gun dealer in the state and several pro-Second Amendment groups challenged the law in 2020, arguing that they have a Second Amendment right to own common assault rifles. The federal district court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit upheld the law, likening the banned firearms to the M-16 rifle, which the Supreme Court has said is outside the scope of Second Amendment protection. The Maryland challengers asked the Supreme Court to review that decision, and the high court put consideration on hold while it decided another gun case involving concealed carry rules in New York. In that ruling issued in June 2022, the Supreme Court laid out a framework under which gun laws must be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation. That decision has led lower courts to invalidate several long-standing gun restrictions found not to meet the so-called history-and-tradition test. Following its decision in that landmark gun case, the Supreme Court sent the challenge to Maryland's assault weapons back to the appeals court to reconsider the case. After applying that new framework to Maryland's ban, the 4th Circuit concluded last year that the assault weapons ban is constitutional. Focusing on the AR-15 in particular, the appeals court found that it is most useful in military service and can be banned consistent with the Second Amendment. It also rejected the challengers' contention that because the guns covered by Maryland's ban are commonly used, they are protected by the Constitution. Instead, the 4th Circuit said adopting this argument would mean that any dangerous weapon "could gain constitutional protection merely because it becomes popular before the government can sufficiently regulate it." The appeals court also said that the ban is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation, as it "is one of many in a storied tradition of legislatures perceiving threats posed by excessively dangerous weapons and regulating commensurately." The challengers again sought the Supreme Court's review, arguing in a filing that the justices should "ensure that the Second Amendment itself is not truncated into a limited right to own certain state-approved means of personal self-defense." They argued the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the U.S. and said the 4th Circuit's ruling "turns a firearm possessed for lawful purposes by millions of Americans into an item with not even presumptive constitutional protection." But Maryland officials urged the court to leave the 4th Circuit's ruling intact, in part because they said it's too soon for the Supreme Court to intervene.
