27 States Just Told SCOTUS: An AR Ban Cannot Depend on Your Zip Code

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Kansas Attorney General Kris W. Kobach filed a September 4, 2026 amicus brief in the consolidated cases Viramontes v. Cook County, No. 25-238, and Grant v. Higgins, No. 25-556. Counsel of record is Tennessee Solicitor General Madeline W. Clark. Twenty-five more states joined: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The brief’s charge is not a new survey. It is the map. Quote: decisions that affirm an outright ban of the AR-15 platform “leave constitutional rights dependent on geography.” Another: lower courts have left “a fundamental right that is subject to legislative caprice and judicial speculation about what the right-holder really ‘needs.’” The filing cites NSSF production data: more than 32 million modern sporting rifles manufactured or imported since 1990. It cites FBI Crime Data Explorer figures, last visited September 1, 2026: in the past year, 378 homicides involving rifles against 3,817 involving handguns, 1,229 knives, and 506 “personal weapons.” Over ten years in Illinois, 4,440 handgun murders and 130 rifle murders. Connecticut: 178 handgun, six rifle.

This is not Wednesday’s petitioners’ brief. That filing put William English’s 2026 survey in the record. This one is the states. The Court granted these cases on June 30. The states ask it to reverse. Heller already said a wholesale ban on arms in common use is off the table. Twenty-seven attorneys general just dared the Court to mean it when the arm is America’s rifle.