As the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals prepares to hear the case Viramontes v. Cook County, the Firearms Policy Coalition has filed a court brief detailing why the ban on so-called “assault weapons” runs afoul of the Second Amendment and is, therefore, unconstitutional.
The brief, filed on Tuesday, is direct and to the point, presenting a convincing argument.
“The question presented by this case is whether the Second Amendment permits the government to ban the best-selling rifle in America and similar semiautomatic firearms,” the FPC brief states. “The answer is no. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that ‘[t]he 18th century meaning’ of the word ‘arms’ is ‘no different from the meaning today’—namely, ‘weapons of offense, or armor or defense.’ And because the plain text of the Second Amendment does not distinguish between types of bearable arms, the Amendment’s protection ‘extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms.’”
The brief also argues that the semi-auto rifle is in “common use,” not rare as some uninformed parties claim.
“The principles established by Heller and confirmed by Bruen should make this a straightforward case,” the brief states. “The paradigmatic semiautomatic rifle banned by Cook County is the modern AR-15, and not only is it ‘commonly available,’ but according to the agency charged with administering the Nation’s firearms laws it is ‘one of the most popular firearms in the United States.’”
Also in the brief, FPC argues the banned rifles are “arms” under the Bevis ruling, are useful for self-defense, are distinct from M16s and are protected under Bevis’s historical analysis. It also argues that such rifles are not commonly used for unlawful purposes.
“While AR-15s and similar rifles are in common use for lawful purposes, there is one thing they very rarely are used for: violent crime,” the brief states. “From 2013 to 2022, rifles of any kind were used in an average of 356 homicides per year. Assuming every one of these rifles was a different AR-15 or similar semi-automatic rifle, that would mean that less than 0.01% of these rifles are used to commit homicide every year.”
Brandon Combs, FPC president, said the brief is part of the organization’s extended fight against unconstitutional bans throughout the country.
“As our brief makes clear, Cook County’s authoritarian ban on protected arms is totally unconstitutional,” Combs said in a press release announcing the brief’s filing. “We will continue to fight forward until this ban and all others like it are eliminated.”
Plaintiffs in the case are Cutberto Viramontes, Rubi Joyal, Christopher Khaya, the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation.
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