The Supreme Court is stepping directly into the fight over bans on AR-15-style rifles. On Tuesday, the justices agreed to hear challenges to assault-style weapons restrictions in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, setting up a major Second Amendment clash in the term that begins in October, NBC News reports. Both laws bar certain semiautomatic rifles that gun-control advocates label "assault weapons," including AR-15s, which have been used in mass shootings such as the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the 2022 Uvalde school massacre. Connecticut expanded its ban after 20 children and six adults were killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has recently broadened gun rights, including a 2022 decision that the Second Amendment protects the right to carry guns outside the home. Last week, the court struck down a Hawaii gun law. When the justices declined to hear a similar case last year, four conservatives signaled they view AR-15 bans as unconstitutional; Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the court "should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon."
Under longstanding precedent, bans of "dangerous" or "unusual" weapons are allowed, but gun rights advocates say that as "the most popular rifle in the country," AR-15-style rifles shouldn't be considered unusual, Politico reports. At least 10 states have banned "assault weapons," arguing that they don't qualify as "arms" protected by the Second Amendment, per the Hill. Challenges to the Connecticut and Cook County laws were brought by individual gun owners and gun-rights groups including the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation. Lower courts have so far upheld both bans.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
