AR-15 Bans Reviewed

The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Second Amendment protects ownership of AR-15-style rifles and similar semiautomatic firearms, taking up challenges to assault-weapons bans in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois. The cases put a major gun-rights question before a 6-3 conservative court that has expanded Second Amendment protections in recent years. A ruling could reshape laws in Democratic-led states, including California and Illinois, that restrict or prohibit semiautomatic rifles often cited in mass shootings. The justices will hear the cases in the next term, setting up one of the court’s most consequential firearms disputes since its recent gun-rights decisions.