U.S. Supreme Court won't review bans on assault-style weapons, high-capacity magazines

NEW YORK, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday preserved Maryland's ban on assault-style weapons and Rhode Island's ban on high-capacity magazines, declining for now to decide if they meet the high court's controversial bar for gun restrictions.

"While that's a victory for gun control advocates, and it came over the objections of several conservative justices, the issue could come back to the high court," reported USA Today about the move.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that challenges to other bans on assault-style weapons are being considered in lower courts and, "in my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon."

It takes four justices to agree to hear a case, and three, Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said they were ready to hear Maryland's ban on assault-style weapons and Rhode Island's ban on high-capacity magazines.

"I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America," Thomas wrote in his dissent. "That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR-15 owners throughout the country."

Kavanaugh likewise wrote that gun rights advocates have a strong case that, because AF-15s are legal in most states, they can be considered to be in "common use" by law-abiding citizens, so they should be allowed under the court's past interpretations of the Constitution.