WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court has pending petitions in two cases, Viramontes v. Cook County and National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont, that address semiautomatic rifle bans. A semiautomatic rifle discharges one bullet per trigger pull while automatically ejecting the spent casing and loading a new round.
Historically, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The National Firearms Act, enacted in 1934, regulated the interstate commerce of specific firearms. In the 1939 case United States v. Miller, defendants faced charges for transporting a double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun with a barrel shorter than 18 inches across state lines. The defendants prevailed at the trial court level but did not submit a brief or appear for oral arguments before the Court. The Court ruled in that case that the Second Amendment connected to militia service rather than being an individual right. It held that the amendment only protects weapons with a reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia.
Lower courts interpreted United States v. Miller for approximately 70 years to mean the Second Amendment applied only to individuals enrolled in military organizations. In 2008, the Court decided District of Columbia v. Heller. In that case, the Court recognized an individual right to own a handgun. The majority stated that the Second Amendment extends to all bearable arms, including weapons that did not exist at the time of the founding. The Court struck down a Washington, D.C. handgun ban because handguns are commonly used for self-defense, but also noted that the Second Amendment does not protect weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, such as short-barreled shotguns. In 2016, the Court decided Caetano v. Massachusetts, vacating a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling on stun gun bans.
No federal appellate court has struck down a state ban on semiautomatic rifles. In 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in Bianchi v. Brown upholding a Maryland law that bans firearms capable of semiautomatic fire, defining them as assault long guns, assault pistols, or copycat weapons. A Fourth Circuit majority concluded that semiautomatic rifles are military-style weapons designed for combat that are disproportionate to self-defense needs and fall outside Second Amendment protection. A dissenting opinion in Bianchi v. Brown applied an originalist interpretation of the Second Amendment, concluding that semiautomatic rifles should receive constitutional protection.