SCOTUS punts on assault weapons ban, but Kavanaugh hints at future ruling

Though the Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to Maryland's assault weapons ban, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested the court would have to address the matter as the issue increasingly enters the judicial circuit.

"Opinions from other Courts of Appeals should assist this Court’s ultimate decisionmaking on the AR–15 issue," Kavanaugh wrote in a statement. "Additional petitions for certiorari will likely be before this Court shortly and, in my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two."

The court needed four votes to hear the case, but only Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas backed doing so. Multiple states have enacted so-called assault weapons bans, with many aimed at the popular AR-15.

New York, Illinois, and Maryland rank among some of the most strict in the nation. New York gun laws, moreover, recently ran afoul of the Supreme Court over concealed carry restrictions and resulted in landmark gun rights decision that could prove relevant in a future AR-15-related case.