Conservative Supreme Court Justices Side With Gun Control Advocates

The U.S. Supreme Court handed gun control advocates a win in Illinois on Wednesday, declining to immediately block the state's assault weapons ban.

The court denied the National Association for Gun Rights' (NAGR) request for an emergency injunction against Illinois' ban on the sale and new possession of semiautomatic firearms. The order leaves the ban in place for the time being as legal challenges continue to play out in lower courts.

The NAGR and a gun shop owner had asked justices to pause enforcement of the ban while awaiting a final ruling on the ban from an appeals court, but the Supreme Court opted not to step in at this stage. Although the vote count was not disclosed and there was no explanation nor dissent on the order, the court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

Newsweek reached out to NAGR President Dudley Brown via email for comment.

In January, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation enacting a statewide ban on "assault-style" weapons, although gun owners already legal possessing them will not have to turn them in. The Protect Illinois Communities also places limits on magazine capacities, like 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns.

The ban, like others across the nation, were passed in the wake of last year's Supreme Court ruling that handed down the largest expansion of gun rights in more than a decade. Illinois' ban was enacted just months after a mass shooting in Highland Park killed seven people during a Fourth of July parade last year.

In last June's landmark Bruen decision, the court's six conservative justices struck down New York's concealed carry law, expanding Second Amendment rights. A number of Democratic-led states, like Illinois, quicky passed new laws following the decision that were in turn challenged by series of lawsuits like the NAGR's.

Citing last year's decision, the plaintiffs in the Illinois lawsuit argued that the case is "an exceedingly simple case" and that the lower courts were "clearly wrong." The Seventh Circuit and district court previously denied the request for an immediate injunction pending appeal.

"There cannot be the slightest question, therefore, that the challenged laws are unconstitutional," the NAGR wrote in its application.

It is likely that should the Seventh Circuit rule against the NAGR, the decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

The lawsuit is also seeking to strike down a local ordinance that bans the sale of assault weapons in the city of Naperville, about 35 southwest of Highland Park.

A number of recent mass shootings, and 12 of the most deadly U.S. shootings since 2006, were carried out with AR-15-style rifles, like those covered by Illinois' law. Last year, the Uvalde school shooting in Texas, which killed 21, and the Buffalo supermarket shooting, which killed 10, involved an AR-15.