Gun rights group, store ask Supreme Court to block city’s ban on assault weapons

A gun-rights group asked the Supreme Court on Monday to block an Illinois city’s ban on assault weapons, saying it runs afoul of the high court’s precedent bolstering Second Amendment rights.

In August, the city council of Naperville enacted an ordinance that was set to begin Jan. 1 banning the sale of assault weapons and large capacity magazines with more than 10 rounds for a long gun or 15 rounds for a handgun. It imposed penalties for violating the law.

A federal court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit declined to block enforcement of the law, prompting the National Association for Gun Rights to ask the high court to get involved.

The groups’ lawyers argued that the lower courts ignored the Supreme Court’s 2022 precedent in New York Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen, which held that any gun control law had to be consistent with the nation’s history dating back to the founding of the country.

“Many of the lower courts did not get the message. This action is a case in point. In the teeth of this Court’s precedents, the district court refused to address the evidence that the arms banned by the challenged laws are held by millions of law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. The district court did not dispute the evidence; it simply ignored it,” they wrote in their request.

In the Bruen decision, the court ruled that New York’s law requiring individuals to show proper cause to obtain a carry license ran afoul of the Second Amendment.

The high court said the government must show that a gun control measure is consistent with America’s founding — or similar laws at the time — to meet Second Amendment guarantees.

The justices wiped away New York’s law and measures in five other states that placed conditions on concealed weapons permits.

Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion served as a lecture. He directed judges to start taking the high court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence seriously and said courts must determine whether a firearm restriction would have seemed reasonable to those who crafted and ratified the Second Amendment. If not, then the law must yield to the Constitution.

The ruling sent shockwaves through court systems and gave gun rights activists new ways to challenge state and federal measures restricting the use of firearms.

The National Association for Gun Rights’ emergency petition was directed to Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who oversees appeals from the 7th Circuit. She could act alone or refer the matter to the entire court.

The National Association for Gun Rights’ was joined in the request by Law Weapons Inc., a gun store in Naperville.

The case is National Association for Gun Rights v. the City of Naperville, Illinois.