Austin-based national reporter covering immigration and voting rights issues.
When Justice Clarence Thomas penned a sweeping reinterpretation of the Second Amendment two years ago, it came as welcome news to opponents of assault weapons ban s. Thomas’ ruling in the case of New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen instructed lower courts to stop balancing the need for public safety against the right to bear arms.
But two years after the seismic Bruen shift, assault weapons bans stand on unexpectedly sure footing. “There is strong reason to believe there is not a majority of five that thinks the Second Amendment means no state can ban assault weapons,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law. “The justices live in the same world we all live in. They see the way in which assault weapons have been used to carry out some of the most horrific mass shootings imaginable... It would not surprise me at all if the Court did not take this issue up any time soon, or ever.
Gun groups have continued to press the same argument that resonated with Benitez in the growing number of challenges to assault weapons bans. Production figures indicate that Americans own roughly 28.1 million modern semiautomatic rifles for recreational shooting, hunting and self-defense, according to Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the industry trade group. That figure is higher than the number of Ford F-150s on American roads.
The ruling disputes that the Heller standard means that, once a gun is in common use, states can no longer ban it. Instead, the ruling contends that the Heller standard only means that the Second Amendment does not specifically protect weapons that civilians rarely possess.
Guns Scotus Assault Weapons Ban Semi-Automatic Rifles
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