http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/262288-supreme-court-rejects-challenge-to-illinois-assault-weapon-ban By Lydia Wheeler - 12/07/15 10:19 AM EST
The Supreme Court declined Monday to weigh in on whether cities and states can ban assault weapons, sidestepping a charged debate rekindled by a series of mass shootings around the country.
In refusing to take the case known as Friedman v. Highland Park, the court — at least for now — lets to stand a lower court's ruling in favor of the Illinois city's prohibitition and, by extension, several similar bans in place in municipalities around the country.
The case stemmed from an ordinance Highland Park enacted in 2013 prohibiting residents from owning any assault weapons. Arie Friedman and the Illinois State Rifle Association challenged the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’s decision to uphold the ban.
The city’s ordinance defines an assault weapon as any semi‐automatic gun that can accept a large‐capacity magazine and has one of five other features: a pistol grip without a stock; a folding, telescoping, or thumbhole stock; a grip for the non‐trigger hand; a barrel shroud; or a muzzle brake or compensator. Some weapons, such as the AR‐15 and AK‐47, are prohibited by name.
Friedman and the National Rifle Association argued that the ordinance substantially restricts their options for armed self‐defense.
Highland Park contended that its ordinance was valid because weapons with large‐capacity magazines are dangerous and unusual.
Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented from the court’s decision to reject the case, saying the court has recognized in past cases that the Second Amendment applies fully against the states as well as the federal government.
“The Court’s refusal to review a decision that flouts two of our Second Amendment precedents stands in marked contrast to the Court’s willingness to summarily reverse courts that disregard our other constitutional decisions,” Thomas wrote.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes as recent mass shootings have awakened the debate over gun control across the country. Just last week, 14 people were killed and 21 others were injured in an attack on the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center in California. The suspected shooters were armed with assault rifles and handguns. Authorities also found thousands of rounds of ammunition, 12 pipe bombs and materials to make several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the couple’s home.
That attack came less than a week after a man opened fire at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colo., killing three people and wounding 9 others.
The recent incidents have pushed the President to call on Congress to make it tougher for people to carry out mass shootings by passing new gun regulations, including banning people on the government's no-fly list from purchasing firearms.
