The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review an important Second Amendment case from CT over so-called “assault weapons”, teeing up a 2017 showdown over gun rights once a new president adds a ninth justice to the Court.
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The laws bar access to the same gun used by Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack on an Orlando nightclub last week. While the court may be in the position to dictate the tone of future state-level legislation in a manner that would align with the changes in gun control that at least part of the American population would like to see, public opinion won’t be the deciding factor here. They voted not to hear the case at about the time Congress was scheduling votes on four gun-related amendments, following a filibuster on the issue by Democratic Sen. The cases were Shew v. Malloy, concerning Connecticut’s ban, and and Kampfer v. Cuomo [dockets], dealing with New York’s ban.
Malloy’s office argued Monday that the state made the right choice to toughen their laws in 2013 and the Supreme Court’s rejection of the case this week emphasized that. That was six years ago, and as if to emphasize that decision the Justices have spent the last six years seemingly making that point clear by declining review in a number of cases where a regulation or restriction on Second Amendment rights was upheld by a lower court.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a similar ban in NY that created a registry of existing assault weapons in the state, banned their future sale, and blocked the sale of high-capacity magazines.
Assault weapons bans are in place in five other states: California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Hawaii. This shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The lower court said the legislators in CT were justified in banning the weapons. The court denied the appeals without comment, letting stand lower court rulings that had upheld the bans [JURIST report] as constitutional.
AR-15s, in particular, are incredibly well-suited for the modern militia, as they have roughly 90% parts commonality with the US military’s standard service rifles, the selective-fire M4 carbine and M16 assault rifle. Not long after, Connecticut, followed New York’s example. He suggested the timing of the recent Orlando mass shooting hurt his petition.
“The court concludes that the legislation is constitutional”, wrote senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello in his decision. “In Connecticut – whether it’s defending our current laws from legal challenge or enacting new measures to help protect our most vulnerable citizens from gun violence – we will continue to work to the best of our abilities to address gun violence”, Jepsen said in a statement on Monday.
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Malloy said CT is safer because of the expanded assault weapons ban and other laws enacted after Sandy Hook.
