In a move that left millions of law-abiding gun owners stunned, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a major case challenging Maryland’s sweeping ban on so-called “assault weapons”—effectively allowing the anti-gun law to stand. The decision has sparked outrage among conservatives and constitutionalists who see the court’s refusal as a gut punch to the Second Amendment.
The case centered around Maryland’s post-Sandy Hook firearm restrictions, which prohibit residents from owning, purchasing, or transferring dozens of popular semi-automatic rifles—including the widely owned AR-15. By choosing not to intervene, the Court let stand a ruling from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the state’s ban. Critics argue this sidesteps a critical constitutional issue.
Three of the Court’s conservative justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—voiced their frustration with the Court’s unwillingness to address the challenge.
Justice Thomas didn’t mince words in his dissent. He wrote, “[F]urther percolation is of little value when lower courts in the jurisdictions that ban AR-15s appear bent on distorting this court’s Second Amendment precedents. I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right. Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain ‘a second-class right.’”
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