They ruled on two landmark weapons cases in 2008 and 2010, when the court decided handguns bought for the goal of defending one’s home were fully protected under the Second Amendment.
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He said his organization feared that a 4-4 tie in that case at the Supreme Court would, in effect, give the high court’s final approval for the SAFE Act provisions. Supporters of bans on such weapons often refer to them as assault rifles.
The eight justices declined to hear two separate appeals brought by gun rights advocates, leaving in place earlier rulings that said the laws were compliant with the Second Amendment, Reuters reported. The legislation in NY and CT is considered to be among the strictest in the US.
The Supreme Court has refused to hear any cases attempting to clarify how the decision of District of Columbia v. Heller, leaving the debate about gun control to the lower courts. The appeals courts consolidated the cases into one and upheld the law.
Blumenthal said the decision “supports my conviction that CT is right on the law: the right to bear arms does not rescind or remove our obligation to keep our citizens safe”.
The denials come at a poignant moment – just over a week after a gunman used a handgun and a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., the worst mass shooting in modern United States history.
“Connecticut dubs a semi-automatic firearm an ‘assault weapon, ‘ but that is nothing more than argument advanced by a political slogan in the guise of a definition”, the group wrote to Supreme Court. In Heller, the Court ruled (correctly) that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own a firearm, though it only applied to federal enclaves.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said SCOTUS decision “isn’t a surprise, but it’s still very important”.
As the debate over gun control laws continues to roil the nation and Congress, the Supreme Court on Monday again made a decision to stay on the sidelines.
Whether such prohibitions are effective in preventing mass shootings is an open question – the laws are “banning the whiskeys, but allowing the vodkas”, says Professor Volokh, permitting some firearms that are just as deadly as those banned. Federal courts have since ruled that statutes like the ban in CT are not in conflict with that decision. These weapons are disproportionately used in crime, and particularly in criminal mass shootings like the attack in Newtown.
Attorney General George Jepsen said “sensible gun safety legislation works”. “Connecticut stands with states across the country that have implemented similar gun violence prevention measures, and I am glad the Court has declined to disturb the thoughtful judicial reasoning that has validated our efforts to prevent future tragedies like the ones in Newtown and Orlando”.
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On the other side, the U.S. Senate voted down four gun-control measures, primarily along party lines.
