Originally written by NSSF. Republished with permission.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, is disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Court decision not to hear the appeals in Snope v. Brown and in the NSSF-funded Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island cases challenging on Second Amendment grounds Maryland’s ban on Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) and Rhode Island’s ban on standard sized magazines, respectively.
We respectfully disagree with Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s statement respecting the denial of cert in the Snope case that the Court should wait a “Term or two” before taking action to stop the lower courts from misapplying the Court’s holding Heller and Bruen to deny the Second Amendment rights of millions of law-abiding Americans living in the states that have enacted laws banning MSRs and magazines.
NSSF agrees with the view expressed by Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissent from the denial of cert in the Snope case. He wrote he “would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR–15 owners throughout the country. [The Supreme Court has] avoided deciding it for a full decade.
And, further percolation is of little value when lower courts in the jurisdictions that ban AR–15s appear bent on distorting this Court’s Second Amendment precedents. I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right. Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain ‘a second-class right.’”
About NSSF
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org.
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