Gun rights protesters have once more used Sonia Sotomayor’s explanations for upholding a ban on bump stocks as a safeguard for opposing other gun control measures.
The Firearms Policy Coalition ( FPC ), arguing before the U. S. Seventh Court of Appeals, is seeking to upend local legislation in Cook County, Illinois, treating various types of semiautomatic rifles as illegal “assault weapons”. Arguing on behalf of claimants Cutberto Viramontes and Christopher Khaya, FPC , insisted , many Supreme Court ideas help continued exposure to automatic rifles.
FPC also pointed to comments Sotomayor made earlier this month in , Garland v. Cargill,  , against overturning a rule by the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives ( ATF ) banning bump stocks. In her opposing view, Sotomayor insisted that the Oct. 1, 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in which 60 people were killed and thousands more were injured, was carried out by a gunman who had affixed knock companies” to widely available, automatic rifles”.
FPC argued Sotomayor’s use of the words” generally available” to define automatic rifles, matched up to the Supreme Court’s previous position in , D. C. v. Heller , that firearms “in popular use” are protected by the Second Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.
While Sotomayor had argued against upholding the ATF’s gun control measure, FPC’s filing is at least the second instance in which gun rights activists have used her words to argue against semiautomatic weapons. Gun rights litigants in New Jersey  , made similar arguments last week , before a U. S. district court judge, seeking to overturn that state’s restrictions on various types and models of semi- automatic firearms.
FPC’s latest legal filing challenging Cook County’s ban on certain firearms types also cited a portion of a 2022 ATF , rule , redefining firearms frames and receivers. While FPC is also , challenging , the legality of that ATF frame and receiver rule, the gun rights advocacy group still pointed to a section in the rule in which the ATF described AR- 15- type semi- automatic rifles as “one of the most popular firearms in the United States”, again insisting the ATF’s own words confer the , Heller ,” common use” protection to those rifles.
FPC’s challenge to the laws in Cook County continued,” Cook County has offered nothing to distinguish the AR-15 from other types of semiautomatic rifles it bans.” ” Under Heller and Bruen, therefore, Cook County’s ban is unconstitutional. This Court’s inquiry should end there”.
It remains to be seen how the federal courts will rule in these cases citing Sotomayor’s dissent in , Cargill.
This article was originally , published , by , FreeBase News , and is reprinted with permission.
