How the gun lobby outsmarted itself and helped engineer its big Supreme Court defeat Monday
One of the rude awakenings of the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo.; Newtown, Conn., and San Bernardino, Calif., was, as the Highland Park, Ill., City Council said in 2013, that gun violence on a large scale “is not limited to urban settings, but is also, tragically, in many suburban and small town locations as well.”
But that wasn’t entirely why Highland Park was in such a rush on June 26 of that year to enact a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines. It was “sprinting” to pass a law, as the Chicago Tribune said at the time, because the gun lobby and gun rights supporters in the state capital had forced its hand. At its urging, the Illinois legislature gave the cities and towns of the state 10 days to pass assault-weapon and other gun legislation before barring such laws entirely at the local level, a preemption strategy long backed by the National Rifle Association. It was a now-or-never situation, and Highland Park, along with other towns faced with that 10-day window, took advantage before it shut, passing the law in a rush.
And in part because of that maneuver, gun rights proponents suffered a serious setback Monday when the Supreme Court let stand Highland Park’s law and an appeals court ruling upholding it, giving a green legal light, or perhaps a yellow one, to other cities and towns to enact their own ordinances if so inclined politically.
While the court issued no ruling and set no precedent when it acted, the National Rifle Association had said in its own submission to the court that it was “critical” for the court to take the case and reverse the appeals court.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/08/how-the-gun-lobby-outsmarted-itself-and-brought-about-its-big-supreme-court-defeat-monday/
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