Attorney General Lynn Fitch has joined Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and 27 other states in filing an amicus briefwith the Supreme Court of the United States in defense of the Second Amendment.
The brief supports a petition for writ of certiorari, asking theCourt to take up the case of Snope v. Brown in which the Fourth Circuit Courtof Appeals upheld Maryland’s unconstitutional ban on hundreds of styles offirearms, including the AR-15, the most popular modern semi-automaticsporting rifle in America. "The language of the Second Amendment is unambiguous and clear. TheFourth Circuit’s decision undermines both individual rights and the veryprinciples of our Second Amendment," said Attorney General LynnFitch. "I am proud to stand with AG Labrador and my colleagues from acrossthe country in defense of this fundamental freedom."
The Fourth Circuit decision flies in the face of recent SCOTUS decisions,including Bruen and Heller, which clearly defined “bearable arms” as anyweapon possessed or carried for offensive or defensive action in a case ofconflict. Relying on sparse and irrelevant historical evidence, including somethat the Supreme Court has already considered and rejected, the Fourth Circuiterroneously concluded this nation has a tradition of banning the possession ofcommonly owned firearms like the AR-15.The brief argues, “...there is no principled distinction between weapons that are‘for military use’ and weapons that are ‘for private use.’ By pretendingotherwise, the Fourth Circuit authorizes itself to ignore the Second Amendmentwhenever it thinks a weapon looks too much like a soldier’s. And this leavescitizens, businesses, and regulators guessing as to what supposedly makes anarm ‘most useful in military service’ – after all the Fourth Circuit said that evenweapons with only semi-automatic capabilities may be considered best suitedfor military...even if the military does not actually use such weapons.”
Joining AG Fitch and Idaho’s Attorney General Labrador in this effort are
attorneys general from: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, as well as theArizona and Wisconsin Legislatures.
Original source can be found here.