Supreme Court refusals deal big blow to Second Amendment, gun rights groups say

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a series of cases dealing with the expansion of gun rights, angering Second Amendment activist groups.

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that they would refuse to hear 10 different cases appealing various gun laws that litigants say violates their Second Amendment rights.

Among the cases that the court refused to hear were assault weapons bans in Massachusetts and Cook County, Illinois. The Supreme Court also elected not to hear similar cases from multiple states on permit requirements to carry a gun outside of the home for self-defense. The court also passed up a case out of California dealing with the  “microstamping” of handgun ammunition as well as bans on interstate handgun sales.

Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented with the court’s opinion not to hear a case out of New Jersey that would require a resident who wanted a concealed carry permit for self-defense to “specify in detail the urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant’s life that cannot be avoided by other means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun.”

Thomas wrote, “This Court would almost certainly review the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to establish a justifiable need before exercising their free speech rights. And it seems highly unlikely that the Court would allow a State to enforce a law requiring a woman to provide a justifiable need before seeking an abortion. But today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens’ Second Amendment rights, the Court simply looks the other way.”

Justices also recently declined to hear a case involving hand gun restriction in New York City because the issue had already been resolved by the city and was now “moot.” The issue was backed by the National Rifle Association.

The Supreme Court currently has a 5 – 4 conservative majority.

The right to carry has always been a hot topic among truckers, but a recent rash of highway violence brought about by protests over the death of George Floyd has brought gun rights to the forefront of conversation in many trucking industry circles.

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