[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday declined to review a Second Amendment challenge to a gun law enforced in Highland Park, Illinois, denying certiorari [order list, PDF] in Friedman v. City of Highland Park [docket; cert. petition, PDF]. The law, challenged by the Illinois State Rifle Association [advocacy website], prohibits “the possession of assault weapons or large-capacity magazines.” Monday’s decision lets stand a ruling [opinion] by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] that upheld the ban. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented form the denial of certiorari, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, noting that such weapons are legally owned and used by millions of Americans and should not be banned for the purpose of creating a sense of security. Similar gun bans already exist in California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut and Hawaii.

Gun control [JURIST backgrounder] and the Second Amendment [text] continue to be controversial national topics, and gun awareness has risen in the wake of recent shootings in Paris, France, and San Bernadino, California [CNN report]. In October Maine’s revised concealed carry law went into effect [JURIST report] allowing legal gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit. Earlier that month the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld [JURIST report] the main parts of Connecticut and New York gun control legislation that ban semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. In September the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a mixed ruling [JURIST report] on DC gun laws, ultimately upholding six and striking down four controversial elements of the Firearms Registration Amendment Act and the Firearms Amendment Act of 2012. The laws were created in response to the Supreme Court striking down [opinion] a DC law prohibiting firearm ownership six years ago. In July US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter ordered a review [JURIST report] of military recruitment office security policies in the wake of a shooting at a Chattanooga, Tennessee Navy-Marine reserve center.