Supreme Court to Review State Bans on Semi-Automatic Rifles
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to assault-weapon bans in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, with arguments slated for its October term.
The Supreme Court announced it will consider two cases that contest state and local bans on semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15. The disputes involve Connecticut’s post-Sandy Hook legislation and a Cook County, Illinois ordinance covering the Chicago area. Both measures prohibit weapons that gun-control advocates label “assault weapons.”
The Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, will hear the combined cases during its next term beginning in October. Lower courts have upheld the bans, but the challengers—two Cook County residents joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation—argue the restrictions violate the Second Amendment. In Connecticut, the law was enacted after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
"In my view, this court should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a separate statement after the Court declined a similar case last year.
The 2022 decision that extended Second Amendment protections beyond the home may shape the upcoming arguments.
