Gun Rights Advocates Seek High Court Review, Citing Bruen Decision and Unconstitutionality of Popular Firearms Ban
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), along with its partners, has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, urging it to review the case of Viramontes v. Cook County. This legal challenge targets Cook County, Illinois’s ban on so-called “assault weapons,” a measure that SAF argues infringes upon the Second Amendment rights of its residents.
The case, originally filed in 2021, was put on hold after the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which established a new standard for evaluating gun control laws based on historical tradition.
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Following the Bruen ruling, the Illinois legislature passed a nearly identical statewide ban on “assault weapons,” which the SAF has also challenged in a separate case, Harrel v. Raoul.
SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack stated that the organization believes the Viramontes case is a “solid vehicle” for the Supreme Court to address assault weapons bans. He cited Justice Thomas’s dissent in a related case, noting that delays by the high court subject millions of Americans to “unconstitutional, categorical bans of some of the most popular arms in America.”
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The petition argues that the term “assault weapon” is a political slogan, not a meaningful designation, and that the ban restricts “perfectly ordinary and common firearms, like the AR-15 rifle.” The filing asserts that these firearms are not distinct from other rifles in their design or function, and that the term is used to exploit public confusion between semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms.
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said the bans are a “disenfranchisement of an entire population of residents” and an “absolute infringement on their Second Amendment rights.” He believes it is time for the Supreme Court to intervene and declare bans on the AR-15 unconstitutional.
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