Attorney General Bonta: States Must Have the Ability to Protect Residents from Assault Rifles Commonly Used in Mass Shootings

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on October 28, 2026 that California joined a multistate amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending assault-weapon restrictions in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois. The statement argues that states and local governments need authority to restrict rifles commonly used in mass shootings and frames the litigation as a test of state power to enact gun-safety laws. This is materially different from earlier posts because it focuses on a new Supreme Court amicus effort tied to assault-weapon restrictions in other jurisdictions.