Four Second Amendment petitions were distributed for the Court's conference on Friday January 10. I just posted on the merits of these cases. A dramatic development has just occurred showing the dire need for the Court to clarify its jurisprudence in this area. The best case to do so is Snope v. Brown, which concerns whether Maryland may ban semiautomatic rifles that are in common use for lawful purposes.
Here's the urgency. Yet another state, Colorado, is about to ban virtually all semiautomatic rifles, large numbers of semiautomatic pistols, and even a number of semiautomatic shotguns. The previous state bans encompass America's most widely-held rifles such as the AR-15, but they don't apply to semiautomatic rifles that do not have pistol grips or other cosmetic features. The Colorado bill will ban ALL semiautomatic rifles that use a detachable magazine, which means almost all semiautomatic rifles. No other state goes that far.
The bill, SB 3, defines a "specified semiautomatic firearm" to include a "semiautomatic rifle with a detachable magazine." That will include a Browning BAR Semi-Auto rifle, a traditional hunting rifle that comes with a magazine holding only three rounds. The only exemption is for rifles that use .22 rimfire rounds, which cannot be used for large game.
