In the aftermath of the Orlando mass shooting, weapon rights activists on both side of the divide were closely looking at the Supreme Court today, and specifically whether the top legal institution would accept a challenge to assault weapon bans in two key states as part of Shew v. Malloy, 15-1030, and Kampfer v. Cuomo, 15-8704. However moments ago we learned that in an attempt to steer clear of an intensifying national debate after the Florida shooting, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to question assault-rifle bans in New York and Connecticut.
As Bloomberg reports, turning away two separate appeals, the justices left intact federal appeals court rulings that said the bans comply with the constitutional right to bear arms. New York and Connecticut are among seven states that outlaw weapons similar to one used by Omar Mateen in the June 12 massacre.
President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had called for reinstatement of the federal assault-weapon ban, which expired in 2004 after a decade. Trump said he is opposed, although he supported a ban in his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve.” The rebuff marks the second time since December that the Supreme Court has declined to question assault-weapon bans. Gun-rights advocates have repeatedly failed in recent years to get the high court to expand protections under the Second Amendment. The court hasn’t taken up a gun-rights case since it threw out a Chicago handgun ban in 2010.
New York and Connecticut strengthened their existing assault-weapon bans after the 2012 shooting that left 20 children and six educators dead at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The group challenging the Connecticut ban, led by octogenarian state resident and shooting sports enthusiast June Shew, called the law “irrational.”
The measure criminalizes the sale or possession of semi-automatic rifles that accept detachable magazines and have at least one other specified feature, such as a forward pistol grip. It lists 183 specific prohibited weapons. “The category of firearms Connecticut bans are united by nothing other than the possession of safety-enhancing features that serve to make them more reliable and better suited to home defense,” the challengers argued.
Connecticut urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case, saying the measure outlaws only a small subset of military-style firearms.
“These guns have an established track record of disproportionate use in the most serious gun crime incidents — mass shootings and killing of law enforcement,” Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen argued.
New York’s law is similar, though it doesn’t list specific firearms. At the Supreme Court, that measure was challenged by state resident Douglas E. Kampfer, who filed his Supreme Court appeal without the help of a lawyer. A New York-based federal appeals court upheld both laws.
Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX rifle as well as a handgun in the Orlando shooting. Although the MCX isn’t explicitly listed as banned in either state, the laws are worded broadly enough to potentially cover the weapon.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, is an advocate of assault-weapon restrictions and serves on the advisory board of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control group.
The post Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To State Assault-Weapons Ban appeared first on crude-oil.top.