With one major gun case looming, US Supreme Court sidesteps others

9/7/2024 6:37

        The U.S. Supreme Court turned away appeals challenging a Democratic-backed ban in Illinois on assault-style rifles such as AR-15s and sidestepped several other gun-related disputes on Tuesday, though it already has agreed to hear one major firearms case in its next term concerning homemade "ghost guns."
        
        The justices declined to hear a group of cases appealing a lower court's rejection of the argument raised by challengers that the Illinois ban violates the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
        
        The justices also ordered lower courts to re-examine challenges to New York state's Democratic-backed law that bars firearms in numerous "sensitive places" and to federal laws that prohibit gun possession by people convicted of serious crimes and users of illegal drugs.
        
        In these cases, the justices directed the lower courts to reassess their various decisions in light of the Supreme Court's June 21 ruling in a case called U.S. v. Rahimi that upheld a federal law banning domestic abusers from having guns.