Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett sided with the three liberal justices in rejecting to hear a challenge to Maryland’s “assault weapons” ban Monday.
As a result, the “assault weapons” ban in Maryland stands, as do similar bans in eight other states, listed as Washington, California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware in the Washington Times.
Breitbart News noted that Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas made clear they would have heard the challenge to Maryland’s “assault weapons” ban. Moreover, the Associated Press reported that Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas “publicly noted their disagreement” with the majority’s refusal to take the case.
The Western Journal pointed out Thomas made clear his concern that the refusal to hear the challenge leaves the door open for a similar or perhaps more egregious ban at the federal level.
Thomas noted, “I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade.”
Although Kavanaugh sided with the majority in refusing to hear the challenge to Maryland’s ban, he released a statement in which he observed, “This case primarily concerns Maryland’s ban on the AR–15, a semi-automatic rifle. Americans today possess an estimated 20 to 30 million AR–15s. And AR–15s are legal in 41 of the 50 States, meaning that the States such as Maryland that prohibit AR–15s are something of an outlier.”
He also noted, “Given that millions of Americans own AR–15s and that a significant majority of the States allow possession of those rifles, petitioners [challenging the Maryland ban] have a strong argument that AR–15s are in ‘common use’ by law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected by the Second Amendment under Heller.”
Nevertheless, SCOTUS’s decision not to hear the challenge to Maryland’s “assault weapons” ban means the August 2024 ruling that upheld the ban — the ruling issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit — continues to stand.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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