Release: GovAct’s Safer Communities Initiative Files Amicus Brief in Support of State and Local Assault Weapons Laws
Brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold lifesaving state and local laws regulating deadly assault weapons.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.)—The Governors Action Alliance (GovAct)’s Safer Communities Initiative on Wednesday supported 11 Governors in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the consolidated assault weapons cases Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins. In the brief, the Initiative’s members urge the Court to preserve state and local gun safety laws regulating the use of military-style assault weapons and to uphold states’ rights to protect the safety and welfare of their residents.
Initiative members include Governors Gavin Newsom (CA), Jared Polis (CO), Matt Meyer (DE), JB Pritzker (IL), Wes Moore (MD), Tim Walz (MN), Kathy Hochul (NY), Tina Kotek (OR), Dan McKee (RI), Abigail Spanberger (VA), and Bob Ferguson (WA).
As the chief executives in their states, Governors’ most solemn responsibility is to protect the safety of families and communities. Amicus Governors have dealt with horrific acts of mass violence in their states, including deadly shootings in Buffalo, New York; in Highland Park, Illinois; in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and in Monterey Park, California.
The Initiative’s Governors write:
“In the wake of assault-weapon mass shootings, members of the Governors Safer Communities Initiative have stood with grieving families, exhausted first responders, and community members working to rebuild. The safety of our residents is our obligation, and it is at stake.”
Assault weapons are exceptionally lethal firearms commonly used in mass shootings. Congress passed legislation regulating assault weapons in 1994, which remained in place until the law sunset in 2004. Since then, a dozen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws at the state level prohibiting these deadly weapons.
The brief argues these laws are protected under the Constitution:
“…the question whether and how to regulate assault weapons remains a live one in state legislatures across the country — being debated and refined in real time. That ongoing process is precisely what our federal structure is designed to protect. States retain broad authority under their police power to legislate for the safety of their residents.”
Governors are intimately familiar with how a mass shooting impacts a community. The immediate response creates a massive burden for a state’s emergency response and local hospital systems. The cost of medical care, crisis counseling, and other services for victims can soar into the billions. But most importantly, a mass shooting forever changes a community, leaving scars that persist long after the cameras leave and the headlines fade away.
The brief details, from the perspective of Governors, the devastating consequences if the Supreme Court strikes down state laws meant to prevent these tragedies:
“The extraordinary human and financial toll is a direct consequence of what assault weapons are built to do. These are weapons explicitly designed for the battlefield, adopted by the U.S. military in the 1960s and still in use to this day…States and the federal government have regulated these weapons for decades…and the empirical record confirms that legislative judgment: jurisdictions that have enacted assault weapons safety measures experience fewer, and less lethal, mass shootings than those that have not.”
Read the amicus brief HERE.
###
About GovAct:
Governors Action Alliance (GovAct) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that unites Governors to champion fundamental freedoms and improve people’s lives. GovAct incubates, launches, and runs alliances of Governors to help states share cutting-edge strategies, legal frameworks, and policy approaches to tackle today’s most pressing challenges on democracy, public health, reproductive freedom, public safety, and more. To learn more, go to www.GovActAlliance.org.