Supreme Court Declines to Hear Challenge to New York's Assault Weapons Ban

The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to New York's assault weapons ban brought by a state resident, the court announced Monday.

Laws in New York and Connecticut prohibit semi-automatic weapons like the one used by the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. on June 12 before he was shot and killed by police. If the justices had decided to hear the case, they would have heard the arguments in their next term, which begins in October, Reuters reported.

“This decision is a victory for common sense gun control laws in New York and across the nation," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

By declining to hear the challenge, as well as one filed by a gun rights group in Connecticut, the Supreme Court left in place laws banning semi-automatic weapons, as well as large-capacity ammunition magazines, in both states that were passed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 students and six educators dead on Dec. 4, 2012 in Newtown, Conn.

The challenge to New York’s SAFE Act was brought by resident Douglas E. Kampfer, who filed his Supreme Court appeal without the help of a lawyer, according to a Bloomberg report.

Kampfer alleged "both a facial Second Amendment challenge to the SAFE Actʹs assault weapons restrictions and an equal protection challenge to its grandfather clause," according to court documents.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released the following statement after the Supreme Court's decision Monday:

The tragedies in Orlando, Newtown, Aurora, and communities across the country have galvanized Americans desperate to get our national gun violence epidemic under control. The overwhelming majority of responsible gun owners want reasonable and effective gun control legislation. They know that there is no place for weapons of war on the streets of America. New York’s assault weapons ban keeps New Yorkers safer – period. It is critical that Congress finally heed the call of the American public and ban the sale of assault weapons. In the absence of congressional action, now is the time for states across the country—and every state in the Iron Pipeline—to finally enact sensible gun laws that keep assault weapons off the streets, and make all Americans safer from the threat of gun violence.

In Connecticut, the group that filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, said it was not giving up.

“We fully intend to renew our challenge to Connecticut’s blatantly unconstitutional ban as soon as there are five justices sitting on the Supreme Court committed to the proper understanding of the Second Amendment,” Scott Wilson, the president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, said in a statement.

In October, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the core provisions of the New York and Connecticut laws prohibiting possession of semi-automatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines do not violate the Second Amendment.

Seven states, as well as Washington, D.C., have laws in place banning assault weapons.

Image via CT State Police report of weapon recovered at Sandy Hook Elementary School

With reporting by Feroze Dhanoa