The Supreme Court will not challenge NY and CT state laws banning the sale and ownership of certain semi-automatic assault weapons and magazines.
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The legal challenge mounted by gun rights groups and individual firearms owners asserted that the NY and CT laws violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms.
A group of pistol permit holders, gun sellers and gun rights organizations supporting gun rights petitioned the Supreme Court to entertain a challenge of the rulings of a federal judge and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that found the expanded ban constitutional.
CT and NY enacted bans on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines in response to the 2012 massacre of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Lanza had used a semiautomatic rifle during the attack.
In their challenge, gun owners complained the CT law was overly broad in that it banned guns in common use, including the AR-15, one of the most popular firearms in the U.S. As a lead plaintiff, they chose June Shew, an 80-year-old widow and handgun owner. The federal assault weapons ban, enacted in 1994, drew legal challenges, but its demise was political when Congress declined to renew it after 10 years.
This isn’t the first time the gun debate has been turned away from the Supreme Court steps. “The overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting”. But the appeals court ruled that the CT law passed constitutional muster. We can not sit idly by and watch tragedy after tragedy, horror after horror.
Murphy, who filibustered for nearly 15 hours to get a Republican response to gun control measures, said “military-style assault weapons have no place in our schools or on our streets”.
Children hold signs at the “One Million Moms For Gun Control” rally at New York City’s City Hall on Monday, January 21, 2013. “Congress must stand up to the NRA, enact a nationwide assault weapons ban, and take action that can help save lives”, she said.
I, for one, am cool with the state banning grenade launchers. The ban was challenged by gun rights activists, who argued that the law violates the Second Amendment.
Last December, the Court refused to hear arguments over Highland Park’s ban on rifles that don’t even match the convoluted, incorrect definition of an assault weapon.
The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) building as viewed from across NE 1st Street.
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So the governments in the United States should feel free to regulate and then defend those regulations in court. “While the act burdens the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights, it is substantially related to the important governmental interest of public safety and crime control”.
