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The U.S. Supreme Court just agreed to hear what could become the biggest Second Amendment case since Bruen.
On Monday, the Court granted review in Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, two closely watched lawsuits challenging so-called assault weapon bans in Illinois and Connecticut.
For gun owners, it’s the case many have been waiting for.
For gun-control advocates, it’s one they hope the Court gets right for very different reasons.
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Everytown: These Laws Save Lives
Everytown Law welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the cases, saying the justices should ultimately uphold the bans.
“Assault weapons cause massive devastation. They are the weapons of choice for mass shooters,” said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment litigation at Everytown Law.
The organization argues the bans are constitutional and notes that six federal appeals courts have upheld similar laws. Everytown also points to research claiming that shootings involving so-called assault weapons result in significantly more victims than incidents involving other firearms.
According to the group, 11 states and Washington, D.C., currently prohibit these rifles.
NSSF: They’re America’s Most Popular Rifle
The National Shooting Sports Foundation sees the issue very differently. NSSF celebrated the Court’s decision, arguing it’s long overdue.
The organization says the cases involve the most commonly sold centerfire rifle in America, with more than 32 million Modern Sporting Rifles currently owned by law-abiding Americans.
That’s important because the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen held that firearms in “common use” for lawful purposes are protected by the Second Amendment.
NSSF argues that’s exactly where these rifles fall.
The trade association also expressed frustration that the Court declined to hear similar challenges last year, saying lower courts have continued to misapply Heller and Bruen.
SAF: Common Use Is the Key
The Second Amendment Foundation also praised the Court’s decision.
Executive Director Adam Kraut said the cases should finally answer whether commonly owned semi-automatic rifles receive the same constitutional protection as other firearms.
“The modern semi-automatic rifles banned in Cook County, Connecticut and elsewhere are among the most commonly owned firearms in the country,” Kraut said.
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He added that it’s difficult to argue the rifles fall outside the Second Amendment when there may be more of them in civilian hands than Ford F-150 pickups on American roads.
SAF founder Alan Gottlieb said lawmakers have relied on “fearmongering” when regulating semi-automatic rifles based largely on their appearance and cosmetic features rather than how they function.
Why This Case Matters
The Court isn’t deciding whether these rifles are good or bad. The central legal question is much narrower:
Can states ban a class of firearms that millions of Americans commonly own for lawful purposes?
Gun-rights groups say the answer is clearly “no” under Heller and Bruen.
Gun-control advocates argue these rifles are uniquely dangerous and that states have the authority to restrict them in the interest of public safety.
Sometime during the Court’s upcoming term, the justices will have the final word. Whatever they decide won’t just affect Illinois and Connecticut. It’ll reshape gun laws across the country.
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There is no “Assault Firearm” it is a conflated term by democrats obsessed with violating the Second Amendment of the Constitution!
No matter what the Court says these dipshit states run by dipshit Democrats will find a way to inconvenience law abiding citizens from keeping the guns that are supposed to be protected by the second amendment. This is what we have to deal with. Just defund the states that don’t follow the law.
This has already been decided by the supreme court in the Heller decsion. AR15’s are “in common use for lawful purposes” more than probably any other firearm in the country maybe only second to glock pistols. If they are going to adhere to their previous ruling this is an open and shut case in favor of gun owners.
If they are going to ban ar-15″s, will they turn around and ban AK’s, 22 rimfires, and every other type of automatic weapon? If these clowns want all this stuff, why don’t they get the Hell out of the US and move to somewhere they have the types of laws they want and leave the rest of us alone!!!!
Please help me understand as I am a gun and Bible clinging simpleton. Who determines what exactly constitutes an “assault weapon”? What features must i remove to be in compliance? Are weapons such as aks, ruger mini 14s, or even bolt action rifles built on ar platforms illegal as well? That’s like banning an assault vehicle. Completely subjective which is scary as hell
Yeah plan B is use it or loose it…
As gun owners, we had better have a Plan B. The current makeup of the Supreme Court does not reassure me at all that our rights will be upheld. We need to get pro-2A laws through Congress if our rights are to be assured.
Yeah plan B is use it or loose it…
The problem is that even if the case is decided in favor of gun owners, as it should be, the Supreme Court has a terrible reputation for decisions that are vague enough to allow them to be almost immediately circumvented. They never hammer out exactly what they say and leave everything open to interpretation by the lower courts. Look where we are following the Bruen decision, states have never stopped violating the 2A because they can interpret Bruen however they want. Just once I would like to see the Supreme Court issue a decision so black and white, so cut and dry, so clear and direct that stepping outside of it triggered an immediate response and correction from the high court. Instead, everything is a battle of semantics allowing the 2A to continue to be walked upon uninterrupted.
Let me make one thing perfectly clear, as a long time shooter, gun owner, instructor, and custom AR-15 builder, these Communist Progressive Criminals are not after guns. They are after “gun owners”. They don’t hate guns. They just want ALL guns/firearms/weapons to themselves, so they can point them at you and me, to make us do what they want, because nobody will do it any other way! This is their history! This is what they do! This is what they have always done, so stop it with the gun bans, it’s not a gun ban. It’s a gun owner, that be you and me, removal system!
The strict enforcement of the United States Constitution, as written, is the only thing keeping these Communist Progressive Criminal thugs out of your living room, your gun closet, and everything else in your life.
The “government” is not our friend. It has turned into our adversary, and that must be changed at every level, local, state federal, by any means necessary.!
“assault weapon” is a made up leftist term to strike fear in the masses.
Any ban, restriction, or permit requirement is 100% in violation of the 2A. Where idiot liberals are confused is the 2A doesn’t tell the people what it can or can’t have; it tells the government what it can not do.
cell phone drivers kill, on average, 11 people EVERYDAY ! NO ONE has a “RIGHT” to a phone OR a vehicle. Our corrupt gov’t. WILL DO NOTHING about what is ALREADY happening. I have owned and shot guns for over 60 years… NEVER killed a human yet…..I don’t plan on being shot by any REPEAT OFFENDERS with a LONG RAP SHEET. Make stronger LEASH LAWS for the animals and savages FIRST
First of all I would like to point out that to a reasonable person, an assault weapon can be defined as any object one person uses to assault another person with, whether that object be a rock, sharp stick, firearm or a dead cat.
Personally I would agree with the author that this should be a pretty open and shut win in support of the Second Amendment all things considered, BUT considering that the person who is the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court single-handedly devalued American citizenship to the same as a quote undocumented child rapist from any third world poo-hole unquote and who I’m begining to suspect decides cases by flipping a coin, one can never be sure of what the outcome will be.
Over the last few years I used to jokingly ask people, “When did America stop being the Land of excellence and become the Land of the lowest common denominator”. Well friends and neighbors that day was officially June 30, 2026 and that ain’t no joke, because when the NUMBER ONE Jurist of your Nation REFUSES TO defend the value of citizenship of HIS Country, OUR Country has lost it’s most precious resource…
Hypothetical question, how long do you think it’ll be before cruise ships full of pregnant Chinese women start showing up in American ports delivering Communist Chinese American citizens? Thank you John…
Over here in Oregon we don’t have an ‘assault weapon’ ban, but we’ve had a mag ban and purchase permit law pending for a few years while folks tussle in court. I’ll be curious to see how things shake out here.
INFRIENGEMENT is infringement. Lying, deceived lawyers need to NOT be hypocrites. Dis-arm yourself first…. show US the way toward PEACE (demon-rats & jackasses)
Considering the number of murders committed by blunt force trauma, you have to figure no matter what it is, no matter what it was meant for originally, no matter who’s using it… Somebody, somewhere, at some time is going to do something dumb with everything.
Look into some of the old blue laws… Oklahoma for example… It’s illegal to tie your alligator to a fire hydrant. All it took was one person to do something that stupid to get a law enacted.
The solution to problems like these…
1) be an uninformed liberal
2) blame the result not the problem
3) believe that guns kill people, and criminals don’t
4) be soft on crime, blame the system and allow criminals out of jail early
5) twist facts and history to support your agenda
6) stay in office by preaching to your constituents that it’s not their fault
7) free handouts to able-bodied lazy people/the village bicycle who are not willing to work/have too many kids
8) blame something that has never happened to you on the rest of America in an attempt to get free stuff
Well the list could go on but I’ll just cut it short…
1911 style will be next they look scary
WE the PEOPLE need to build a guillotines for EVERY MAJOR city. Put them in the TOWN SQUARE. It is OUR PUBLIC PROPERTY
The guillotines would probably fall into the hands of the lefties like during the French Revolution and a wave of indiscriminate death would follow in the US but the 2A would be a major factor, unlike France.
Europe is being destroyed by the left with mass immigration where mass deportation is needed, the fake press in the US ignores the horror show. Connor McGreagor has become a strong voice trying to save his Country and Europe.
There are already millions out there and they won’t get those!! It appears tyranny gets closer every day via stolen freedoms and surveillance!
Indeed! Even if SCOTUS rules in our favor, commie states will still carve out and ban “scary” less common firearms by name or class. This ruling should be absolute, and not about what is or isn’t popular.
common use and not weapons of war are just window dressing……scotus needs to affirm the 2A that all firearms are legal! shame that when it don’t go the commies way they will just start doing the same thing again and again.
I tend to agree, and the “dangerous and unusual” standard under D.C. v. Heller, which apparently the late USSC justice Scalia signed onto, also very dubious to me.