Gun-Control Groups Ask Supreme Court To Reverse Landmark Ruling

Two gun-control organizations called on the Supreme Court to use a case challenging laws banning modern semiautomatic firearms as an opportunity to overturn the court’s landmark Heller ruling.

The justices granted writs of certiorari in two cases involving bans on modern semiautomatic firearms imposed by Cook County, Illinois, (which includes Chicago) and Connecticut, agreeing to hear arguments on whether bans on so-called assault weapons are constitutional. Among the dozens of legal briefs that flooded the high court Wednesday were a pair from Americans Against Gun Violence and the American Enlightenment Project calling on the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2008 ruling in Heller v. District of Colombia.

“Heller and its progeny are egregiously flawed decisions that are themselves incompatible with the history and plain language of the Second Amendment, and these decisions have devastating public health consequences,” Americans Against Gun Violence claimed in its brief. “A ruling by this Court in favor of Petitioners in the present case would compound those devastating consequences.”

“We call on this Court to rule not only that civilian ownership of AR-15’s is not constitutionally protected, but also to acknowledge Heller and its progeny were wrongly decided,” the group continued.

In the Heller decision, the Supreme Court struck down the 1982 ban on handguns enacted by Washington, D.C., saying it violated the Second Amendment. In the brief, Americans Against Gun Violence argued that England’s gun laws prove that the Founders never intended to protect an individual right to own firearms.

“The most obvious contemporary evidence that the Founders could not possibly have inherited a broad right to private gun ownership from their English ancestors lies in the fact that although the 1689 English Declaration of Rights has never been repealed, Britain currently has some of the most stringent gun control laws of any high income democratic country in the world, including a complete ban on civilian ownership of handguns and most automatic and semi-automatic long guns,” the group claimed.

The American Enlightenment Project also argued that the 2008 decision was wrong, but instead asked the Supreme Court to “reconsider” the case, arguing that it created a “gun crisis” in the United States.

“By constitutionalizing broad firearms possession, Heller magnifies the predictable consequences of anger, passion, intoxication, and impaired impulse control,” the group argued in a brief by co-founder Robert Ludwig. “Its costs are measured not only in lives but are widespread.”

According to the Supreme Court’s website, roughly 40 “amicus” briefs, also known as “friend of the court” briefs, were submitted by members of the House of Representatives led by Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, multiple United States Senators, 27 states, the federal government via the Department of Justice (DOJ) and numerous pro-Second Amendment organizations at the national and state levels in support of the legal challenge to the bans on so-called “assault weapons.”