Supreme Court Won’t Hear Challenge To Chicago Suburb’s Assault Weapons Ban

The Highland Park case was filed by Dr. Arie Friedman and the Illinois State Rifle Association, after a 2013 decision by the federal appeals court in Chicago, which struck down Illinois’ statewide ban on carrying concealed weapons.

The Supreme Court didn’t review laws in some states and cities that ban assault weapons.

Credit: C-SPANThe U.S. Supreme Court refused today to hear a major Second Amendment case out of IL which asked whether a city’s ban on “assault weapons” violates the U.S. Constitution.

Consider assault weapons. They get much of the attention in the gun debate, for a few reasons. That ruling noted a statement in the Heller decision that said legislatures retained the ability to prohibit “dangerous and unusual” weapons, and Judge Frank Easterbrook said the guns Highland Park banned qualified.

“Why else are they the weapon of choice in mass shootings?” he asked.

Thomas said the high court should have heard the appeal of that ruling in order to prevent that appeals court ‘from relegating the Second Amendment to a second-class right’.

Similarly, in October, a federal appeals panel covering the mid-Atlantic region upheld NY and CT bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.

In Texas, where the Legislature spent months recently working on new laws expanding gun rights, the notion that some places might want to restrict them seems downright freaky.

Assault weapons are not an actual class of firearms.

“We also need to make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones that were used in San Bernardino”. The shootings have drawn strong scrutiny of gun laws, with The New York Times running a notable front page editorial calling for more regulation, a sentiment echoed in President Barack Obama’s televised address Sunday night.

“We are pleased that the 7th Circuit decision to uphold Highland Park’s right to take reasonable steps to protect our citizens from particularly unsafe firearms has been preserved”, said Mayor Nancy Rotering.

Some lawmakers have been hesitant to enact such bans in fear the law will be overturned by the courts.

By opting not to hear an appeal of a lower-court ruling that upheld the measure, the justices avoided taking up what would have been a high-profile firearms case following a succession of mass shootings, including the one last week in San Bernardino, California.

“The millions of Americans who own so-called “assault weapons” use them for the same lawful purposes as any other type of firearm: hunting, recreational shooting, and self-defense”, he wrote, adding that the firearms are “almost never used for crime” because criminals “far prefer” ordinary handguns that are easier to carry and hide. “There is no basis for a different result when our Second Amendment precedents are at stake”.

Highland Park police Chief Paul Shafer said his department has confiscated weapons under the ban three times, and in all three cases police discovered the guns while responding to unrelated actions involving the guns’ owners.