U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Challenges To State Assault Weapons Bans

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Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:06 pm

In a day littered with bad news when it comes to gun legislation, there is one silver lining: The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear challenges to assault weapons bans enacted in Connecticut and New York.

The court’s decision comes as the nation once again recovers from another mass shooting, which took the lives of 49 innocent Americans in a gay Orlando nightclub. It also comes on the same day Senate Republicans – wholly owned by the NRA – blocked four common sense pieces of gun legislation.

The two assault weapons bans being challenged were enacted just after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The 2013 Connecticut law bans almost 200 kinds of semi-automatic firearms. The New York law, which is modeled after Connecticut’s, is very similar.

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The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss the challenges shows that there are, indeed, common sense limits to the Second Amendment. The American people widely agree and now it appears that the Supreme Court does as well.

What’s particularly telling about today’s news is that none of the justices on the court – not even right-wing Justice Clarence Thomas – issued public disagreement with the decision.

According to the Huffington Post, Thomas and late Justice Antonin Scalia forcefully dissented a similar ruling made by SCOTUS just last December. Perhaps the politics of this issue – with both the courts and the general public – are changing to recognize that there are some smart limits that need to be implemented in order to keep people safe and prevent senseless killings.

If only Republicans in Congress – and, of course, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump – would get the memo then maybe we could actually get something meaningful passed on a national scale.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.