The SCOTUS turned away hearing challenges to two cases involving state restrictions on assault-style rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
There were two appeals after lower courts upheld bans in Maryland on powerful semiautomatic rifles such as AR-15s, and one in Rhode Island restricting the possession of ammunition-feeding devices holding more than 10 rounds.
Lower courts had rejected arguments that the measures violate the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”
Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the court’s decision to reject the appeals.
“I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right,” Thomas wrote.
Brett Kavanaugh showed sympathy in the Maryland case, where the challengers argued that AR-15s are in common use by “law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected by the Second Amendment.” Kavanaugh said the court “presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon.”
Maryland banned military-style “assault weapons” such as the AR-15 and AK-47 in 2013 after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in 2012.
