Washington (AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Monday effectively upheld state bans on military-style assault weapons, declining to hear a challenge to bans on guns like the one used to kill 49 people in Orlando earlier this month.
The challenge was brought by gun rights advocates seeking to overturn bans on assault weapons passed by Connecticut and New York after the 2012 killing of 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
In that attack, a mentally disturbed man armed with a military-style semi-automatic assault rifle shot to death 20 children and six others at the school.
The Supreme Court’s action, while effectively validating the New York and Connecticut laws, was silent on the specifics of the case and why it declined to hear the challenge.
At the center of a long-standing US battle over gun control legislation is the US constitution’s second amendment, which protects the rights of citizens to bear arms.
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