Supreme Court to Announce This Week Whether It Will Hear Huge Second Amendment Case

In a case that could have national implications, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce this week whether it will take on a challenge to a Chicago-area law banning semi-automatic rifles.

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California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., also currently ban so-called “assault weapons.”

More from NBC News:

Gun rights advocates are challenging a 2013 law passed in Highland Park, Illinois, that bans the sale, purchase, or possession of semi-automatic weapons that can hold more than 10 rounds in a single ammunition clip or magazine. In passing the law, city officials cited the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

The ban also lists certain specific rifles, including those resembling the AR-15 and AK-47 assault-style firearms

The Illinois State Rifle Association is challenging the law as the group believes it to be unconstitutional.

A federal district judge and a federal appeals court panel upheld the law.

Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in his decision that “a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines might not prevent shootings in Highland Park (where they are already rare), but it may reduce the carnage if a mass shooting occurs."

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