A Maryland law which bans semi-automatic weapons, as well as a Florida restriction on openly carrying guns were left in place by the Supreme Court, which on Monday turned down two appeals requesting the expansion of access to firearms.
Gun dealers and other proponents of gun use claimed a Maryland ban on rifles and high-capacity magazines was in violation of individuals’ Second Amendment right to own guns. The law was passed in 2012, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Judge Robert King noted that the law still leaves a lot of options to citizens regarding firearms they could purchase to protect themselves as it “bans only certain military-style weapons and detachable magazines.” Among the types of weapons and ammunition not covered by the ban are “magazines holding ten or fewer rounds, non-automatic and some semi-automatic long guns, and most importantly—handguns,” the judge added.
The ruling on Monday came without the usual protests by conservative justices complaining that their colleagues were denying greater access to firearms. Such was the case with the court in June when it refused to hear a challenge to California regulations which apply to carrying weapons openly.
There were no such comments on Monday when the court decided not to review a Florida ban on gun carrying. The state is known to permit greater access to guns compared to California or Maryland, even issuing concealed-weapons permits to everyone who requests them.
A man in Florida who had obtained such a permit was arrested after he was spotted carrying a gun. The state’s Supreme Court approved the arrest, supporting the argument that public safety is preserved by the open-carry ban as “deranged persons and criminals would be less likely to gain control of firearms in public because concealed firearms…could not be viewed by ordinary sight.”
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