The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear challenges to state and local bans on so-called assault weapons, including the AR-15, setting the stage for a landmark ruling on the Second Amendment. The court will consider whether Americans have a constitutional right to own these popular semiautomatic firearms, which have been used in numerous mass shootings.
Cases from Illinois and Connecticut
The justices will hear arguments that Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, violates the Second Amendment by banning a class of semiautomatic weapons. The county's ban, in place since 1993, criminalizes possession of more than 100 named rifles with penalties of up to six months imprisonment. A similar case from Connecticut, enacted after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, will also be heard.
According to the Giffords Law Center, 11 states and the District of Columbia prohibit what they define as assault weapons, while 14 states and D.C. outlaw high-capacity magazines. The court will take up the dispute in its term starting October 2026.
Potential Expansion of Gun Rights
Gun-rights advocates aim to extend the 2022 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to carry a firearm in public and required gun laws to be consistent with historical tradition. The Cook County ban is challenged by two gun-rights groups and two residents who want to acquire semiautomatic rifles, describing the AR-15 as an “iconic American firearm” and the most popular rifle in the country.
“If the Second Amendment does not protect the most popular rifles in the country, it is hard to see how it protects any firearms at all other than the handguns this court held protected in Heller,” the plaintiffs argued, referencing the 2008 decision affirming a right to own a handgun for self-defense.
Lower Court Rulings and Support for Bans
Lower courts have largely upheld assault-weapons bans, including the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Cook County case and the 2nd Circuit in the Connecticut case. Cook County defended its ban as a response to “overwhelming, mounting, and unrefuted evidence showing that assault rifles are the weapon of choice for criminals and terrorists set on quickly massacring innocents.”
Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group founded by Michael Bloomberg, supports the laws. Some conservative justices, including Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, previously indicated interest in reviewing an assault-weapons ban when the court declined similar cases last year.
