The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a major Second Amendment fight that could shake the gun confiscation lobby’s favorite ban scheme to its core.
At issue: whether the government can ban AR-15-platform and similar semi-automatic rifles — some of the most commonly owned firearms in America — by slapping them with the politically manufactured label of “assault weapons.”
For decades, anti-gun politicians have called these firearms “weapons of war,” claimed peaceable citizens cannot be trusted with them, and used fearmongering to justify outright bans.
But AR-15s and similar semi-automatic rifles are commonly owned by millions of law-abiding Americans for self-defense, training, competition, hunting, and defense of hearth and home.
Now the Supreme Court is finally taking up the fight.
THE CONNECTICUT CASE
One of the cases before the Court is Grant v. Higgins, a Connecticut challenge to the state’s ban on AR-15-platform and similar semi-automatic rifles.
Connecticut’s law treats peaceable gun owners like criminals for wanting the same type of rifle millions of Americans lawfully own across the country.
The Second Circuit allowed the ban to stand, proving once again that too many lower courts are still treating the Second Amendment like a second-class right despite Bruen.
A related Connecticut challenge, National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont, raised similar issues over Connecticut’s ban on commonly owned rifles and standard-capacity magazines.
But the Supreme Court selected Grant as the Connecticut vehicle.
THE COOK COUNTY CASE
The Court will also hear Viramontes v. Cook County, a challenge to Cook County, Illinois’ ban.
Cook County’s ordinance prohibits possession, acquisition, and transfer of AR-15-style rifles and other targeted firearms.
In plain English, Cook County politicians decided peaceable citizens should not be trusted with some of the most popular rifles in America.
That is the gun confiscation agenda: ban the guns, criminalize possession, and claim it is all about “public safety.”
THE STAKES GO BEYOND ONE RIFLE
This case directly deals with AR-15-platform and similar semi-automatic rifles.
But the impact could reach much further.
So-called “assault weapons” bans are built on the same basic scheme: take commonly owned firearms, attach scary labels, point to cosmetic features, and pretend that makes them unprotected by the Second Amendment.
Many of these laws do not stop with rifles.
They often use the same feature-based test to target certain semi-automatic shotguns and handguns because they accept detachable magazines, hold more than a handful of rounds, or have other features anti-gun politicians dislike.
If the Supreme Court rejects that framework for commonly owned rifles, it could put enormous pressure on the entire “assault weapons” ban playbook.
Not just rifle bans.
The whole scheme.
Because if the government can ban one commonly owned semi-automatic firearm because politicians dislike its features, then no firearm is safe.
The gun-ban radicals are trying to establish the power to decide which arms the American people may keep.
That is exactly what the Second Amendment was written to prevent.
TEXAS GUN RIGHTS WILL FILE AN AMICUS BRIEF
Texas Gun Rights will not sit on the sidelines while the Supreme Court weighs one of the most important Second Amendment cases in a generation.
The same radicals pushing bans in anti-gun states want to bring that agenda to Texas the first chance they get.
“This case is bigger than one rifle, one state, or one ordinance,” said Texas Gun Rights President Chris McNutt.
“The question is whether politicians can ban common firearms by inventing scary labels and pretending the Second Amendment does not apply. If the Court gets this right, it could cripple the gun-ban playbook anti-gun states have used for decades.”
Texas Gun Rights will file an amicus brief in this fight, making it clear the Second Amendment does not protect only the arms anti-gun politicians are willing to tolerate.
It protects every arm.
If the Court rules correctly, it could put every anti-gun state on notice:
Chip in today to help Texas Gun Rights file its amicus brief and keep fighting to defend and restore the Second Amendment — without compromise.
