Federal Government Policy and Business

Supreme court declines to hear NRA-backed challenge to assault weapon ban

The Guardian: The US supreme court, which has avoided major gun cases for seven years, on Monday declined to hear a National Rifle Association-backed challenge to a 2013 state ban on assault weapons enacted in Maryland after the Connecticut elementary school massacre.

The court also declined to hear a second gun-related case in which a Florida man convicted of openly carrying a firearm on the street sought to challenge that state’s ban on such activity.

In the Maryland case, the court turned away an appeal by several residents, firearms dealers and the state NRA, who argued that the ban violated their right to keep and bear arms under the second amendment. In doing so, the justices sidestepped the roiling national debate over the availability of military style guns.

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