…“Their decisions to deny certificates of registration for commonly possessed semiautomatic firearms runs afoul of binding Supreme Court precedent & therefore trample the Second Amendment rights of #law abiding citizens.”prosecutors claimed.
Prosecutors cited a 2008 #SCOTUS ruling that held that people may possess firearms in their homes for purposes such as #SelfDefense, invalidating a #handgun ban that #DC had in place at the time.
[#SemiautomaticRifles ARE NOT handguns]
#DOJ sues #DC over ban of #AR15s & other #SemiautomaticGuns
The suit incorrectly claims that the registration restrictions on semi-automatic rifles in DC is an “unconstitutional ban.” In a lawsuit Monday, #Trump admin attys chastised the city for its code banning most #SemiautomaticRifles & certain #firearms from being registered with the #police, making possession of those weapons illegal.
#HomeRule #law
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/12/22/justice-department-sues-dc-ar-15-rifle/
“We decline to wield the #Constitution to declare that #military-style armaments, which have become primary instruments of #MassKilling & #terrorist attacks in the #UnitedStates, are beyond the reach of our nation’s democratic processes,” Judge Wilkinson added.
#law #SCOTUS #SecondAmendment #WMD #SemiautomaticRifles #AR15 #GunControl
The #law’s ban on what critics call #AssaultWeapons ban did not violate the #SecondAmendment because rapid-firing long guns “are #military-style weapons designed for sustained #combat operations that are ill-suited & disproportionate to the need for self-defense,” wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
Justice Brett M. #Kavanaugh, who could have supplied the fourth vote needed to add the case to the court’s docket, issued a statement saying the question was significant & could soon warrant review but that he hoped additional opinions from lower courts could assist the justices on the issue. He wrote that #SCOTUS “should & presumably will address the #AR15 issue soon, in the next term or two.”
“I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right,” [ummm what?] he wrote. “Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain ‘a second-class right.’” [#hypocrisy]
Justices #Alito & #Gorsuch said they too would have heard the case but did not provide reasons.
“I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America,” #ClarenceThomas wrote. “That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding #AR15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade.”
He added that the court’s commitment to the #SecondAmendment was inadequate.
The Maryland law was enacted in 2013 in response to the #MassShooting at #SandyHook Elementary School in Connecticut the previous year. It banned many semiautomatic rifles & imposed a 10-round limit on #GunMagazines.
In dissent, Justice #ClarenceThomas said the court should have considered the question, which the justices have repeatedly declined to resolve.
#SCOTUS announced on Monday that it would NOT hear a major #SecondAmendment challenge to a Maryland #law banning #SemiautomaticRifles like the #AR15. As is the court’s practice, its brief order gave no reasons.
The move, over the objections of 3 conservative justices, let the ban stand & reflected the court’s intermittent engagement with #GunRights. It has issued only 3 significant #2A decisions since recognizing an individual right to own #guns in 2008.
This device is designed only for killing a lot of people quickly.
#Trump's admin agreed on Friday to permit the sale & possession of devices that let gun enthusiasts convert #SemiautomaticRifles into weapons that can shoot as fast as #MachineGuns.
The agreement came in a #settlement announced by the #DOJ ending lawsuits brought under Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe #Biden, after his admin banned certain "forced reset triggers."
#law #GunViolence #guns #extremism
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-reversing-biden-allows-forced-reset-triggers-guns-2025-05-17/
