Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh is suggesting the Supreme Court may soon take up the constitutionality of state bans on AR-15s. The court declined on Monday to take up Snope v. Brown, a case on Maryland’s assault weapon ban. While Justice Kavanaugh says he accepts the court not taking that case, he released a statement with the decision indicating he is skeptical that such bans are constitutional.

“The court should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next term or two,” Justice Kavanaugh said.

He noted that AR-15s are legal in 41 of 50 states, with Americans owning an estimated 20 million to 30 million of them. He says there is a strong argument that AR-15s are in “common use” by law-abiding citizens and therefore protected by the Second Amendment under the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision.

“Under this Court’s Second Amendment precedents, moreover, it can be analytically difficult to distinguish the AR–15s at issue here from the handguns at issue in Heller,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.

Three conservative justices indicated they supported a review of Snope, with Justice Clarence Thomas submitting a written dissent, stating, “It is difficult to see how Maryland’s categorical prohibition on AR-15s passes muster.”

“Our Constitution allows the American people — not the government — to decide which weapons are useful for self-defense,” Justice Thomas wrote. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch were the other two who indicated they would have taken the case.

Maryland’s law bans dozens of weapons the state says are similar to military-grade weapons. Attorneys for the state argue they aren’t protected by the Constitution because they weren’t designed for civilian use.

The executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, Andrew Willinger, says it appears justices simply decided to kick the can down the road to wait for another case currently pending at the circuit court level.

“It’s impossible to know for sure, but Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett may prefer to delay such a high-profile case until after the initial deluge of emergency applications involving Trump executive orders has subsided,” Mr. Willinger says.

The Supreme Court has delivered a mixed set of decisions this session for Second Amendment proponents. It overturned a ban on bump stocks but upheld a ban on ghost guns. The court also ruled that the federal law prohibiting firearm possession by individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders is constitutional.

The Trump administration has signaled a shift in positions on cases involving firearms rights. President Trump addressed the NRA last spring, promising a rollback of gun-control policies if he returned to the White House.

In February, the president issued Executive Order 14206, directing the attorney general to examine all executive actions and to present a proposed plan to protect Second Amendment rights and re-evaluate its litigation positions.