The federal appeals court in Chicago upheld the Highland Park law, ruling that local governments have leeway in deciding how to regulate firearms. One of many impolite awakenings of the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., Newtown, Conn., & San Bernardino, Calif., was, as the Highland Park, Sick., City Council stated in 2013, in that gun violence on a large scale “is not limited to urban settings, yet is also, tragically, in many suburban and little town locations as well”.
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In upholding Chicago’s ban, the dissenting justices said, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in its April decision to uphold the ban went against the high court’s 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision, which gave self-defense protections to individuals under the Second Amendment.
Most of the justices declined to take up the case except for Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who say they are frustrated with the highest court in the land treating the Second Amendment like a “second class right”.
“The millions of Americans who own so-called “assault weapons” use them for the same lawful purposes as any other type of firearm: hunting, recreational shooting, and self-defense”, he wrote, adding that the firearms are “almost never used for crime” because criminals “far prefer” ordinary handguns that are easier to carry and hide.
Similar bans are on the books in California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut and Hawaii, and none have been struck down, so the justices had no legal conflict to resolve.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly turned away challenges to gun restrictions and has not taken up a major case since 2010.
The Court denied a petition backed by the Illinois State Rifle Association that sought a review of the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in Highland Park, Illinois.
Monday’s decision not to hear an appeal in the IL case is being described as a victory for gun control in some national media and “people will probably over-react” to the decision on both sides of the gun issue.
“There is no basis for a different result when our Second Amendment precedents are at stake”, Thomas wrote.
They said the term “assault weapons” was anti-gun propaganda and there was nothing unusual about the guns.
“We need an attorney general who’s going to understand that we don’t need to pass new laws”, Christie said in July.
Representatives from the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence are among those applauding today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision against hearing the case.
The Highland Park case, however, brought a direct challenge by gun rights advocates to a specific ban on a specific kind of firearm, and the banned weapon is said to be the most popular firearm, all across America. But he appears to have only one other vote for his NRA-sponsored theory-and until he gets more, the Second Amendment will continue to allow for bans on the kind of weapons that enable mass shootings.
The city’s assault weapons ban was upheld by the appeals court in a 2-1 decision.
In addition, the Legislature has expressly prohibited cities from enacting local regulations of guns that are stricter than state firearms law.
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Brandon Smith poses with his AR-15 rifle during a pro-gun and pro-Second Amendment protest outside of the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix on January 19, 2013.
