A federal appeals court has upheld an assault weapons ban in Chicago and the rest of Cook County, Illinois.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that guns rights advocates provided no compelling reason why the court should overturn its 2015 ruling upholding a similar ban in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.
In that ruling, the court said Highland Park didn’t run afoul of the Second Amendment right to bear arms because residents could still obtain other types of guns for self-defense.
Thursday’s unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel rejected the argument the ban in Cook County, which includes Chicago, should be assessed differently because it has higher crime rates.
(AP)
4 Responses
This will dramatically reduce the number of murders, attempted murders, and collateral damage to innocent people committed by Chicago gangbangers–NOT!
It’s about time that a city has acted in reaction to all of these shootings and passed laws restricting the buying of assault weapons, which have no purposeful use besides for terror purposes. The normal excuse of guns being a constitutional right to defend against a tyrannical government shouldn’t apply as much because of the utter disbalance of power nowadays in which a couple of violent rednecks holding assault rifles won’t stop a single tank of the army. In this case, the risks outweigh the benefits of civilians owning military-grade weapons.
This ruling flies directly in the face of the Supreme Court’s rulings in Heller and McDonald. The very fact that the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America is itself enough to make it protected by the second amendment. The fact that other weapons are available is irrelevant. Not only are those other weapons not as good or useful, even if they were the government has no right to restrict a weapon that is a common means of self-defense. That’s what the Supreme Court said about handguns, and the exact same thing applies to the AR-15, no matter what scary names you call it.
To Milhouse: Why should we allow madmen to run amok with a military-grade weapon that’s supposed purpose is self-defense? When was the last time someone needed an assault rifle, of which the main pro of it is that you can fire thousands of uninterrupted shots, to defend themselves? If it is permitted under the second amendment then that’s a mistake to be fixed, not an excuse for this madness. Why just because of the assault rifles popularity should it be protected from banishment, rather, due to the unnecessary danger of its misuse we should rise up together to condemn its selling. I hope you see the logic of this dissent.