The Supreme Court said Monday that it won’t take up a case related to assault weapons bans in Connecticut and New York.
The decision not to take up the case comes roughly a week after the country’s deadliest mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., in which 49 people in a gay nightclub were killed and 53 others injured.
The justices decided to not hear a challenge to a lower court ruling that upheld laws passed in response to the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The rejection of the case was similar to when they denied a challenge to a ban on semi-automatic weapons in a Chicago suburb in December following the San Bernardino, Calif., attack.
According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and the District of Columbia ban assault weapons. The federal government had banned such weapons for 10 years, but that expired in 2004.
In the wake of the December 2012 shooting that left 26 dead, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a law banning assault weapons in addition to large-capacity magazines. Gov. Andrew Cuomo then signed a similar ban in New York. The Newtown shooter used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle in his attack.
In the Orlando attack, Omar Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a pistol during his attack. He was later killed in a shootout with police.
