Summary: The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and Safari Club International have filed a Supreme Court amicus brief challenging unconstitutional semi-automatic rifle bans to protect hunters’ rights and the Second Amendment.
Today, September 4, the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, with Safari Club International, filed an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court in two cases challenging so-called “assault weapon” bans.
The Legal Challenge to Semi-Automatic Rifle Bans
Semi-automatic rifles are the second most popular type of firearm in the country, behind handguns. In 2008, the Supreme Court held handguns could not be categorically banned because the Second Amendment protects firearms that are commonly used by ordinary American people. Semi-automatic rifles should receive the same protections. Yet, many states and localities ban them. And after close to two decades of litigation with mixed outcomes in the lower courts, the Supreme Court decided to hear two cases out of Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, challenging semi-automatic rifle bans.
Hunting Heritage and National Defense
Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation filed the friend of the court brief to ensure hunters’ interests were presented to the court. The brief explains how any firearm used for hunting is protected by the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment itself is a direct repudiation of the classist European hunting policies that prohibited common people from harvesting game. The founders also knew that protecting the right to own arms that were used for hunting was central to the national defense. During the early years of the republic, men typically brought whatever firearm they hunted with when they mustered for militia duty. Ultimately, the founders would have never imagined banning common hunting firearms, and hunters have been using semi-automatic rifles for over a century.
Standing for Law-Abiding Americans
“Semi-automatic rifle bans are not only inconsistent with the plain text of the Second Amendment, but they are irreconcilable with American history and tradition,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “We hope the court ultimately sides with hunters and law-abiding Americans and strikes down Connecticut and Cook County’s bans under the Second Amendment.”
The Sportsmen’s Alliance guarantees hunting, fishing and trapping for the American sportsman now and forever. We’re there when sportsmen need us most. We are the only organization specifically created to protect the individual hunter, angler and trapper – no matter the threat. We will never compromise when it comes to defending our way of life in the courts, in the legislatures, in the public square and at the ballot box. We make this promise to the American sportsman: we will never give up and never give in while proudly securing our future against those seeking to destroy our values, beliefs, and traditions. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
