Justice Clarence Thomas blasted the Supreme Court on Monday for declining to take up a case challenging Maryland’s law banning “assault weapons,” which specifically targets the AR-15 firearm.

The high court denied a petition to hear a case brought by a pro-gun group to overturn a 2013 Maryland law that outlawed various semiautomatic firearms, labeling them illegal “assault weapons.” A lower appeals court ruled 10-5 to uphold the law, which will remain in effect because the Supreme Court declined to take up the case.

Recommended Stories

• Trump administration asks Supreme Court to stop order blocking federal workforce cuts
• Supreme Court takes up GOP challenge to counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day
• Supreme Court allows Trump administration to end mass parole for migrants

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Thomas said they would have taken up the case. Thomas wrote a blistering dissent to the decision not to hear the challenge, arguing it is “difficult to see how Maryland’s categorical prohibition on AR–15s passes muster” under Supreme Court precedent.

“I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR–15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade,” Thomas said.

“I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right. Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain ‘a second-class right,'” Thomas added.

He also took aim at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for its decision to uphold the Maryland law.

“The Fourth Circuit placed too high a burden on the challengers to show that the Second Amendment presumptively protected their conduct. And, it’s determination that AR–15s are dangerous and unusual does not withstand scrutiny,” Thomas said, arguing the appeals court should have instead placed the burden on Maryland to show its ban was lawful.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a statement on the high court’s decision to deny the petition to hear the case, calling the lower court’s decision questionable and saying the denial should not be viewed as the Supreme Court agreeing with the Maryland law or “that the issue is not worthy of review.”

“Opinions from other Courts of Appeals should assist this Court’s ultimate decision-making on the AR–15 issue. Additional petitions for certiorari will likely be before this Court shortly, and, in my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two,” Kavanaugh said.

The Firearms Policy Coalition, which pushed for the high court to hear the case, said it was “disappointed” that some of the justices did “not have the judicial courage to do their most important job and enforce the Constitution.”

“Like millions of peaceable gun owners across the country, we are frustrated that the Court continues to allow lower courts to treat the Second Amendment as a second-class right. But more than anything else, we are more resolved than ever to fight forward and eliminate these immoral bans throughout the nation, whatever and however long it takes,” the group said in a statement on Monday.

SUPREME COURT TAKES UP GOP CHALLENGE TO COUNTING MAIL-IN BALLOTS THAT ARRIVE AFTER ELECTION DAY

The group also said it would continue to litigate cases against “assault weapon” bans and vowed to return to the Supreme Court in the “near future.”

As part of its order list released Monday, the Supreme Court also declined to take up a case challenging Rhode Island’s law banning high-capacity magazines for firearms.