Supreme Court Upholds Assault Weapons Ban
October 2, 2000

Washington, DC - The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to hear an appeal by gunmakers who challenged the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and Congress’ authority to prohibit the manufacture, sale and possession of certain semiautomatic assault weapons. The 1994 law was authored by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) who issued the following statement:

“In today’s action, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would not take up the case of Navegar v. United States. In effect, this decision means that the 1994 law will remain intact, and that Navegar's arguments have failed.

What is clear to me from the refusal of the Supreme Court to hear the case is that there is a legitimate right of Congress to use the interstate commerce clause in the regulation of firearms in this country. The reason, of course, is that these weapons are delivered across state lines, they are marketed across state lines and they are sold across state lines.

This most recent attempt to overturn the ban came from the makers of the deadly TEC-9 assault pistol, which was used in the July 1, 1993 shooting at 101 California Street in San Francisco. Armed with two of these rapid-fire high-capacity assault pistols, Gian Luigi Ferri killed eight people and wounded six others in a matter of minutes before taking his own life.

Navegar's advertising for the TEC-9 touted the gun as being for ‘paramilitary’ use and ‘resistant to fingerprints,’ with a ‘military non-glare finish,’ a ‘military blowback system,’ and ‘combat-type’ sights. Congress looked at this and other military-style assault weapons in 1994, and determined that these guns do not belong on the streets of America.

Once again, an attack on the assault weapons ban has failed. These military-style firearms have no purpose other than the quick, easy and mass killing of other human beings. I will continue to fight against efforts to overturn the assault weapons ban in Congress, and I am confident that any future efforts to reverse the ban in the courts will also fail.”