In what seems to be a blow to Second Amendment rights from SCOTUS, gun rights supporters say the fight to end AWBs and magazine bans is far from over.
Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court rejected certiorari in National Association for gun Rights v. Naperville.
As to how the case got to the Supreme Court in the first place, the U.S. District Court denied a preliminary injunction blocking the law’s enforcement, which plaintiffs then appealed to the 7th Circuit.
The 7th Circuit upheld the district court’s denial of preliminary injunction, ruling that AR-15s are not guns under the Second Amendment in an outrageous ruling that defied multiple Supreme Court precedents.
The National Association for Gun Rights appealed to the Supreme Court, asking them to overturn the 7th Circuit’s ruling and issue a nationwide precedent striking down gun bans once and for all.
The case sat in conference for months, keeping Second Amendment supporters sitting on pins and needles, waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court as to whether or not they’d take up the case.
Unfortunately, they declined – but the National Association for Gun Rights says the fight is far from over.
Hannah Hill, Executive Director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights (NAGR’s legal arm) said this of the decision:
“Today’s decision tells the lower courts they’re more than welcome to trample Bruen to their hearts’ content – at least for the time being. The question all along has been whether the Supreme Court was okay with the lower courts’ outright and unanimous defiance of the plain holdings of Bruen. Today we got our answer: for now at least, the Second Amendment IS a second-class right, and it will remain so until the Supreme Court decides to stop ducking the issue.”
Justice Clarence Thomas included a statement calling the 7th Circuit’s ruling “nonsensical” and said “It is difficult to see how the Seventh Circuit could have concluded that the most widely owned semiautomatic rifles are not “Arms” protected by the Second Amendment.” Justice Thomas went on to state that when the case comes back to the Court in a final judgment posture, the Supreme Court “can – and should” review the 7th Circuit’s decision if they stand by their preliminary injunction reasoning.
Dudley Brown, President of the National Association for Gun Rights, also issued a statement:
“Justice Thomas just told the nation that the 7th Circuit got it wrong when it ruled that AR-15s – the most commonly owned rifle in America – is not a gun at all under the Second Amendment. And yet, the entire Court – with the exception of Justice Alito – agreed to let that decision stand. Apparently, a right delayed is NOT a right denied for the Supreme Court. They better get used to hearing from us, because we will keep bringing them ‘assault weapons’ ban cases until they get it right,”
Stay tuned as the National Association for Gun Rights embarks on the path to end gun and magazine bans nationwide.
Read more at CBSNews.
