Proving once again how fickle they are, the United States Supreme Court refused to take up a pair of Second Amendment cases in a decision announced Monday.
One of the two cases would have dealt with Florida’s ban on open carry, which remains in effect even for gun owners who possess a concealed carry permit.
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The other case revolved around Maryland’s blanket ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition as well as a ban on dozens of modern rifles like the AR-15.
In 2015, Justice Clarence Thomas criticized his colleagues for rejecting to discuss this issue:
“The overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting, under our precedents, that is all that is needed for citizens to have a right under the Second Amendment to keep such weapons.”
The decision to withhold from these cases, come just a few months after the Supreme Courted rejected to take up a similar case from California.
In June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided that the Second Amendment does not protect the right to carry a concealed weapon in public.
Justice Clarence Thomas was again frustrated, and wrote to his colleagues:
“…even if other members of the court do not agree that the Second Amendment likely protects a right to public carry, the time has come for the court to answer this important question definitively. Twenty-six states have asked us to resolve the question presented…The Supreme Court has offered little guidance.”
The court’s refusal to take up the cases means that the current laws will remain intact.
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Eric Friday, an attorney for the Florida appeal told the Washington Times that they are not giving up, saying:
“This fight for the Second Amendment is not a short-term fight, this is a long-term fight. We are not going to quit just because the Supreme Court didn’t take two cases.”
Second Amendment activists have made tremendous gains using the legislative process in states like Maine, Kansas, Missouri, West Virginia, Iowa and many others in recent years.
However, advancements in gun rights freedom in the courts have been sporadic, at best, something that gun rights activists should take to heart.
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