BREAKING: Supreme Court denies challenge to assault weapons ban passed in Illinois

[kpete]

Last edited Mon Dec 7, 2015, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)

SCOTUS denies challenge to assault weapons ban
By refusing to take up this challenge, the Supreme Court is leaving the assault weapons ban in place.
http://www.msnbc.com/jos--d-az-balart/watch/scotus-denies-challenge-to-assault-weapons-ban-581302851591

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear a challenge to a Chicago suburb's ban on semiautomatic "assault" weapons, an indication that a majority of justices feel such bans are constitutional or should be left up to state and local governments.

The court denied a petition backed by the Illinois State Rifle Association seeking review of an appeals court's ruling that Highland Park, Ill., can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Such weapons were used in several recent mass shootings across the country, including those that killed 14 people last week in San Bernardino, Calif, as well as 26 at a Connecticut elementary school and 12 at a Colorado movie theater in 2012.

MORE:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/12/07/supreme-court-guns-assault-weapons-semiautomatic-ban/73817344/


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Great News. The NRA Death Cult, and their Republican Party Puppets, have lost Supreme Court Justices, Kennedy,Roberts, and Alito.

Supreme Court lets local ban on assault weapons stand


"In a victory for gun-control advocates, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected a 2nd Amendment challenge to laws that forbid the sale or possession of semiautomatic weapons that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

The justices by a 7-2 vote refused to review rulings by judges in Chicago who upheld a ban on assault weapons in the city of Highland Park as a reasonable gun-control regulation.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented.

The court's decision, while not a formal ruling, strongly suggests the justices do not see the 2nd Amendment as protecting a right to own or carry powerful weapons in public. In the court's only two decisions upholding gun rights, the justices struck down city ordinances in Chicago and Washington, D.C. that prohibited residents from keeping a handgun at home for self-defense.

Since then, the justices have repeatedly refused to hear appeals from gun-rights advocates who have sought to extend the 2nd Amendment right to protect the carrying of weapons in public."


MORE:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-supreme-court-...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/us/supreme-court-will-not-hear-challenge-to-assault-weapons-ban-of-highland-park-ill.html

[LonePirate]

1. This is a start. One bit at a time.

[lark]

11. +1,000,000

Many more steps are needed, but I'm glad for this first one.

[BeyondGeography]

2. But how will people on the mean streets of Highland Park ever defend themselves

without these weapons? After all, you never know who's going to get crazy at the Ravinia Festival.

[waddirum]

13. I had a couple of Sangrias at the Steve Miller Band show

Afterwards I wondered around Highland Park drunk singing "Go on take the money and run... hooo hooo"

[BeyondGeography]

16. As if a single-action revolver suffices in those situations

Good thing you waited until after the ruling to come clean.

[pipoman]

3. This is an asked and answered question to SCOTUS

SCOTUS has essentially stated tgat states have much greater latitude in firearms restriction than the feds. This ruling will not however make defining "assault weapon" any less ambiguous....as evidenced by the CA legal guns used in SB...

[frazzled]

4. As Highland Park goes, so goes the nation

Or so I would hope. A little amusing that this begins in a rather tony, very white suburb north of Chicago, where the median household income is over $100K. But I'm glad they took the step, and that other municipalities, large and small, follow suit. What we need, though, is a FEDERAL law.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

5. Don't get too excited, yet.

The conservatives on the court may have felt that this was not the proper case to take up the issue, yet.

But, it is a victory, for now.

[Maeve]

6. K&R

[hedda_foil]

7. Yay Highland Park! That's my hometown, though I haven't lived there for more than a decade.

It's pretty damn exciting, in these lean times, that the city chose to bear the cost of defending this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

[waddirum]

14. Ft. Sheridan and the new Openlands Reserve

are among the most beautiful spots in all of Illinois. Perhaps the best views of Lake Michigan. And it has a curated trail through one of the "ravines".

[hedda_foil]

17. Don't forget the new Rosewood Beach!

[Worldly Traveler]

8. I take this as a green light

If a majority of the Supreme Court recognize the Second Amendment has some restrictions, that should serve as a open invitation to the Administration. Can we expect an Executive Order banning the sale of assult weapons? Fingers crossed!

[EL34x4]

9. If President Obama could've banned assault weapons by EO

He'd have done it a long time ago.

He can't.

[GGJohn]

15. Don't schools teach civics anymore?

Pres. Obama doesn't have the authority to ban domestically manufactured semi auto rifles, and that's all these so called assault weapons are, semi auto rifles, by EO, he does have the authority to ban the importation of foreign made firearms by EO, and an EO isn't the be all, end all that many think it is, it can, and usually is, rescinded by the new incoming Admin.

[blackspade]

10. Awesome.

"Assault' weapons" and high capacity magazines are unnecessary for either self defense or hunting.
Nor is it necessary or safe to open carry guns in public any more that it is to carry a flamberge or a battleaxe.

[NickB79]

12. The courts have long ruled that bans such as this are legal

States such as California and New York have had such bans for quite a while now, and they've survived court challenges.

But in the meantime, it's not hard at all to legally buy or build firearms that are for all intents and purposes no different than assault rifles in those states either:





Both of these are NY and CA legal.

[Eleanors38]

18. That Black Rain is butt-ugly.

[mdbl]

19. Finally some civic leaders with common sense

I am glad someone else thinks assault weapons have no place in society. They are instruments of war. Was the NRA planning on lobbying congress to sell the average citizen a tank too? Of course, it would be better to have a tank to drive to work in this armed madhouse.

[CBGLuthier]

20. "are constitutional or should be left up to state and local governments." Does MSNBC not understand

how the Constitution works?

That sentence seems to be implying that state and local governments can pass laws that are unconstitutional.

Should have said

are constitutional AND should be left up to state and local governments.

[47of74]

21. Thomas and Scalia dissented

Has Thomas ever had an independent thought?