December 14 (Reuters) – After a deadly mass shooting in Chicago’s Highland Park suburb in 2022, the Democratic-backed state ban on assault-style rifles and large-capacity magazines was enacted. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a renewed request by a national gun rights organization and a firearms retailer on Thursday, declining to block the ban once more.
The justices’ decision keeps the law in effect while Robert Bevis, the National Association for Gun Rights, and his gun store, Law Weapons & Supply, appeal the ruling of a lower court. Their request for a preliminary injunction against the ban and against a ban of a similar nature passed by Naperville, another Chicago suburb, was turned down.
Not a single justice openly disagreed with the ruling. In May, at an earlier stage of the case, the plaintiffs sought an injunction, which was denied by the Supreme Court.
Following a massacre at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park in 2022 that left seven people dead and numerous others injured, Illinois passed the ban.
Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act into law in January, outlawing the sale and transfer of numerous types of powerful semi automatic “assault weapons,” such as AR-15 and AK-47 rifles, as well as magazines that hold more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns.
Claiming to be an organization that embraces “no compromise on the issue of gun control,” the National Association for Gun Rights, along with Bevis and his establishment, contested Naperville’s ordinance limiting the sale of specific assault rifles and the state’s more extensive prohibition, arguing that they violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which safeguards the right to “keep and bear” arms.
This lawsuit is one of many contested in federal and state courts against the state’s ban.
On Nov. 3, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago dismissed the challengers, ruling that the bans were probably legal in part because the Second Amendment covers weapons intended for civilian, not military, use.
The 7th Circuit concluded that assault rifles and high-capacity magazines “are much more like military-grade weaponry and machine guns than they are like the many different types of firearms that are used for individual self-defense.”
One of the many divisive issues in a country sharply divided over how to handle firearms violence, including frequent mass shootings, is the accessibility of assault-style rifles.
With a conservative 6-3 majority, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Second Amendment broadly, expanding gun rights in three significant decisions since 2008.
A New York state law was overturned in 2022 when the court ruled that carrying a handgun in public for self-defense was protected by the constitution.
Andrew Chung reported, and Grant McCool and Chizu Nomiyama edited.
