United States Supreme Court Grants Review in Assault Weapon Cases, Everytown Law Responds

NEW YORK – Today, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, which involve reckless gun lobby challenges to Cook County, Illinois and Connecticut laws restricting assault weapons – weapons that are frequently used in our nation’s deadliest mass shootings. 

“Assault weapons cause massive devastation. They are the weapons of choice for mass shooters,” said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment litigation at Everytown Law. “These laws are critical public safety measures, and they are consistent with the Second Amendment. Six federal appeals courts have rightly upheld assault weapon and large-capacity magazine laws, and we urge the Supreme Court to follow suit.”

To date, 11 states and Washington D.C. have enacted laws to prohibit assault weapons and 16 states have enacted regulations around assault weapons more generally. These laws have been consistently upheld by federal courts, first in the wake of District of Columbia v. Heller, which first held that there is an individual right under the Second Amendment, and again after New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. All four federal courts of appeals that have considered the constitutionality of assault weapon laws since Bruen—the First, Second, Fourth, and Seventh Circuits—have upheld them.

From 2015 to 2022, shootings with four or more people killed where assault weapons were used resulted in nearly six times as many people shot, more than twice as many people killed, and 23 times as many people wounded per incident, on average compared to those that did not involve the use of one. Additionally, from 2016 to 2025, all of the ten deadliest mass shooting incidents involved both an assault weapon and a large-capacity magazine. Read more here.

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