US Supreme Court rejects bid to overturn assault weapons ban in Maryland
Court also rules against hearing the bid to challenge ban by Florida on openly carrying guns
The US Supreme Court dealt a setback on Monday to gun rights proponents including the National Rifle Association, refusing to hear a challenge to Maryland’s 2013 state ban on assault weapons enacted after a Connecticut school massacre.
The court turned away an appeal by several Maryland residents, firearms dealers and the state NRA association, who argued that the ban violated their right to keep and bear arms under the US Constitution’s Second Amendment. The conservative-majority court on Monday also declined to hear a challenge to Florida’s ban on openly carrying firearms.
The justices, who have avoided major gun cases for seven years, sidestepped the roiling national debate over the availability of military-style guns to the public.
The case focused on weapons that have become a recurring feature in US mass shootings including the November 5 attack at a Texas church that killed 26 people, the October 1 attack at a Las Vegas concert that killed 58 people, and the 2012 massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which prompted Maryland’s law.
Assault weapons are popular among gun enthusiasts.
The challengers, who had sued Maryland’s governor and other officials in 2013, appealed a February ruling by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia that upheld the state’s law. The 4th Circuit said it had no power to extend constitutional protections to “weapons of war,” and it found little evidence such guns were well-suited for self-defence.
Maryland’s ban outlaws “assault long guns,” mostly semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 and AK-47, as well as large-capacity magazines, which prevent the need for frequent reloading.