With what just happened in Minneapolis, a lot of people are talking about assault weapon bans. They claim that banning so-called assault weapons would put an end to shootings like this, that maniacs couldn't kill as many people if they couldn't have "weapons of war," and so on.
What happened hurts my soul. It truly does. It brings up bad memories, which would be enough, but it also hurts because these are children.
13 years ago, I lost a friend in a massacre. A dear friend. For a couple of seconds after I learned of what happened--after I picked myself up from the sobbing puddle under my desk that I'd been right after learning of it--I wondered if I'd been wrong about gun control. I realized, though, that nothing changed.
I think about that after an incident like that, and it's why I still oppose assault weapon bans.
The Second Amendment Foundation opposes them, too, and they're asking the Supreme Court to review a challenge to such laws.
From a press release:
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review in Viramontes v. Cook County, SAF’s challenge to the Cook County, Ill., ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
Originally filed in 2021, the case was put “on hold” during which time the Supreme Court handed down the 2022 Bruen decision, and the Illinois legislature passed the nearly identical statewide ban on “assault weapons,” which SAF has also challenged, in Harrel v. Raoul. SAF is joined in Viramontes by the Firearms Policy Coalition and two private citizens.
“The Supreme Court has indicated its interest in addressing assault weapons bans within the next term or two, and we think this case is a solid vehicle for that review,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “As Justice Thomas rightly pointed out in his dissent from denial in Snope, the longer SCOTUS delays, the longer millions of Americans are subject to these unconstitutional, categorical bans of the some of the most popular arms in America.”
As noted in the petition: “Cook County’s ‘assault weapons’ laws restrict many perfectly ordinary and common firearms, like the AR-15 rifle. These firearms are not distinct from other rifles in their design or their function. Indeed, the very term ‘assault weapon’ is a political slogan masquerading as a meaningful designation, designed to exploit ‘the public’s confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic’ firearms.”
“The idealogues in Cook County wrongfully think that the AR-15, and similar firearms, are not appropriate for self-defense,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The disenfranchisement of an entire population of residents is an absolute infringement on their Second Amendment rights. We’ve fought this case for far too long and it’s time for the Supreme Court to step in and determine that bans on the AR-15 are unconstitutional.”
A victory before the Supreme Court would put an end to at least some of the threat of assault weapon bans once and for all. I'm sure some states will try to finagle their laws around the Court's language, however it's worded, but an outright assault weapon ban would be dead.
Right now, that's something we could really use.
Man isn't a rational creature. Man is a rationalizing creature. We can tell ourselves we're using reason and logic as much as we want, and many of us really do try, but we're generally driven by emotion. That's why anti-gunners use emotion-triggering stories to push their agenda.
So, sooner or later, one of these incidents will be bad enough to generate enough outrage that we get an assault weapon ban somewhere we wouldn't expect, if not at the federal level.
Getting the Supreme Court to declare them unconstitutional is critical in preventing that, especially since we all know that those with murderous intent will still find a way to kill. I've outlined a number of past massacres recently that involved guns that wouldn't have been banned, or that didn't involve a gun at all. That won't stop the anti-gunners, though, because it's not about what will protect people. It never has been.
This needs to happen. It needs to happen quickly, and the Court needs to make the right decision.
Editor’s Note: Groups like SAF, FPC, GOA, NRA, and others are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.
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