Supreme Court allows AR-15 ban in this state
abcnews.go.com
The Supreme Court turned away an appeal by a group of gun-rights advocates seeking to overturn Maryland's ban on AR-15 semi-automatic rifles under the Second Amendment.

The Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal by a group of gun rights advocates seeking to overturn Maryland’s ban on assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines under the Second Amendment.

The decision, a major win for gun safety advocates, leaves in place a ruling by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals which ruled that the state may constitutionally prohibit sale and possession of the weapons.

The state legislation, enacted in 2013 after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, specifically targets the AR-15 – the most popular rifle in America with 20-30 million in circulation. They are legal in 41 of the 50 states.

  • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.netEnglish
    41·
    4 days ago

    I think you misunderstand. I’m not trying to stan the 2A. I’m trying to point out that the US is not at all unique when it comes to private access to the sort of gun that Maryland has banned.

    • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Ok, I’m gonna need a citation for that one. I mean, sure, we’re not “unique” in that regard, but it’s fairly uncommon.

      • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.netEnglish
        31·
        4 days ago

        Overview of gun laws by nation

        Even I am surprised by how many nations have a legal pathway to semiauto ownership. Also for the record, I think that firearm licensing programs are generally a good idea, and driver licensing programs provide a good model for them to follow. But few US states have them.

        • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
          42·
          4 days ago

          So the majority of countries either don’t allow guns at all or don’t allow guns without a permit and a good reason. A few allow guns with a permit and no reason necessary. Three (that I could see) don’t require a permit. I mean, yeah. Strict gun laws work, and a lack of gun laws leads to gun violence. Is there any more proof you need?

          • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.netEnglish
            4·
            3 days ago

            And all the countries that allow guns suffer from frequent mass shootings, right? Because access to guns is the cause of social violence.

            • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
              12·
              3 days ago

              The easier it is to access guns, the more mass shootings there appear to be in the country, yes. Access to guns is the cause of gun violence. No one has claimed that access to guns is the cause of all violence.

              If someone’s goal is to kill 20 kids, having access to a gun makes that goal substantially easier to accomplish.

              • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.netEnglish
                2·
                3 days ago

                Well go on, show me the violent crime stats by country so that we can compare to semiauto long gun regs. It would also be nice if we could see before and after stats but I know that’s a tall ask and I’m not trying to be a sealion. Let’s just see violent crime stats, maybe just homicides per 1 million or similar. It sounds like you have access to this data.

                Don’t show me only the mass shooting stats. We’re not trying to reduce mass shootings, we’re trying to reduce violence. We’re not trying to avoid having to see guns, we’re trying to avoid having to see bloodshed. I know, I know. You want to point out that mass shootings are a vector of violence that can be remedied by removing guns. This is true, taking away rights does mute a lot of issues related to irresponsible management of those rights. But you’ve been brushing off my suggestions that there are more just and fair ways to address that vector for this entire conversation. So let’s table that specific response of yours for now, and let’s just see the violence stats before moving on.

                • hperrin@lemmy.caEnglish
                  22·
                  3 days ago

                  Here’s a study on gun ownership vs gun deaths:

                  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3828709/

                  Results. Gun ownership was a significant predictor of firearm homicide rates (incidence rate ratio = 1.009; 95% confidence interval = 1.004, 1.014). This model indicated that for each percentage point increase in gun ownership, the firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9%.

                  Conclusions. We observed a robust correlation between higher levels of gun ownership and higher firearm homicide rates. Although we could not determine causation, we found that states with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides.

                  Here’s a graphic showing gun ownership by country:

                  https://www.graphicnews.com/en/pages/42747/firearms-civilian-gun-ownership-by-country

                  As you can see, the US is almost 4 times higher than the next highest country.

                  And here’s a graphic showing the number of mass shootings by country:

                  https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/mass-shootings-by-country

                  Again, you can see that the US tops the chart by a huge margin (more than 5 times).

                  We can’t really compare based on just violence alone, because any country in active conflict severely skews the data. You’d have to include only countries in peacetime. But you can certainly compare based on gun violence, because the US always trends very high. Even when you include countries in active conflict, the US compares to them in gun violence. So, living in the US is similar to living in a country involved in active conflict with regard to gun violence.

                  https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/2024/oct/comparing-deaths-gun-violence-us-other-countries

                  Highlights

                  • Globally, the U.S. ranks at the 93rd percentile for overall firearm mortality, 92nd percentile for children and teens, and 96th percentile for women.
                  • The U.S. has among the highest overall firearm mortality rates, as well as among the highest firearm mortality rates for children, adolescents, and women, both globally and among high-income countries.
                  • Nearly all U.S. states have a higher firearm mortality rate than most other countries. Death rates due to physical violence by firearm in U.S. states are closer to rates seen in countriesexperiencing active conflict.
                  • Black and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people have the highest firearm mortality rates of any racial or ethnic group.