By Islam El-Sakka
Relatives of victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold state and local bans on AR-15-style rifles.
The brief, filed Wednesday, supports bans in Connecticut and the Chicago area that are being challenged in two cases scheduled for oral arguments on Dec. 2. The parents of five of the 20 first-graders killed and relatives of one of six educators who died argue that the 2012 massacre demonstrates the extreme lethality of such firearms.
Families cite devastating injuries
The filing describes how the shooter, Adam Lanza, fired more than 150 rounds in about four minutes with a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, killing 26 people. Jennifer Hensel, whose 6-year-old daughter Avielle Richman was killed, said her daughter was shot multiple times in the face and was unrecognizable. Nicole Hockley, mother of 6-year-old Dylan Hockley, said her son was shot five times and his body was destroyed.
Gun rights advocates challenge bans
Gun rights groups, including the Second Amendment Foundation, argue that banning semiautomatic rifles violates the Second Amendment. They contend that school shootings occur despite such bans and that the solution lies in improved school security rather than restricting firearm types.
Supreme Court to weigh Second Amendment scope
The Supreme Court's conservative majority agreed in June to hear appeals challenging the Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, bans. Lower courts have upheld both laws. The cases follow a 2022 landmark ruling that expanded Second Amendment rights and required gun laws to be grounded in historical tradition. Similar bans exist in about a dozen states, including New York, California, and Virginia.
