Liam Conner
Washington – The Supreme Court on Monday declined to challenge Maryland’s ban on so-called assault weapons, allowing legal proceedings to take place in the dispute.
By not entering the legal battle at this time, Maryland’s law remains in effect for now. Challengers to the ban have asked the Supreme Court to take up their case before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether the restriction is permissible under the Second Amendment. The entire 4th Circuit heard arguments in late March but has not yet issued a ruling. The dispute will likely return to the Supreme Court once the appeals court rules.
Maryland’s ban on certain semiautomatic rifles was enacted after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. According to the law, it is a crime to possess, sell, transfer or buy a “long assault weapon”, which covers 45 specific weapons or their analogues. A variety of semi-automatic pistols and rifles are still available. allowedaccording to the Maryland State Police.
In addition to Maryland, nine other states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws restricting semiautomatic weapons.
A group of Maryland residents who want to purchase semiautomatic rifles covered by the ban, a licensed gun dealer in the state, and several pro-Second Amendment groups challenged the law in 2020, arguing that it violates the Second Amendment.
The 4th Circuit had upheld the law once before, and the Supreme Court declined to review that decision. As a result of the earlier appellate decision, a federal district court dismissed the case. But it reached the high court once again, which sent the dispute back to the lower courts for further proceedings in light of a 2022 ruling that expanded the scope of the Second Amendment.
In that decision, the Supreme Court established a framework under which gun laws must be consistent with the country’s historical tradition of regulating firearms. This decision has led lower courts to invalidate several long-standing gun restrictions that do not meet the so-called history and tradition test.
The Supreme Court I heard a case in November stemming from one such case, in which a federal appeals court invalidated a 30-year-old law that prohibited people experiencing domestic violence from having restraining orders from possessing firearms. A decision has not yet been issued in this case, but the ruling is expected to provide further guidance on how courts should apply the Supreme Court’s new rule.
Those challenging gun rights have asked the Supreme Court to step in and override the appeals court, which rarely happens. They argued that the issue is of “overriding importance”.
“A fundamental right is at stake, the appropriate outcome is clear, and the behavior of the lower courts indicates that this court’s intervention is likely necessary for this fundamental right to be vindicated,” the groups argued.
They urged the Supreme Court to take up the case before the 4th Circuit ruled “to make clear once and for all that the most popular rifles in the nation’s history are protected by the Second Amendment.”
But Maryland officials have urged the justices to decline the request to review its firearms law, arguing it is too early to intervene in the dispute. They also said that under the Supreme Court’s new standard for evaluating the constitutionality of gun laws, the ban on certain semiautomatic rifles passes.
The assault weapons ban survives constitutional scrutiny “because it is consistent with our nation’s historic tradition of firearms regulation, which encompasses the regulation of new weapons that pose increased dangers to public safety,” the attorney general wrote. of Maryland, Anthony Brown.
