WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court, which has been steadily expanding gun rights in recent years, has agreed to examine whether bans on semiautomatic rifles — commonly referred to as assault weapons — are in conflict with the Second Amendment.
The justices announced Tuesday that they will hear appeals seeking to overturn restrictions on the AR-15 and comparable semiautomatic firearms that are currently in effect in the Chicago area and the state of Connecticut.
Roughly a dozen states across the country have enacted similar restrictions, including major metropolitan areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. A federal assault weapons ban that had been in place nationally was allowed to expire in 2004 by Congress. Since then, Democratic lawmakers have pushed to reinstate it following a string of mass shootings, while individual states have continued to enact their own versions of the law.
These cases represent the latest in a series of high-stakes gun rights battles to reach the nation’s highest court, following a major 2022 ruling in which the court’s conservative majority significantly broadened Second Amendment protections — a decision that has since triggered legal challenges to firearm regulations across the country.
Arguments in the case are anticipated to take place this fall.
