The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will decide whether cities and states may ban people from owning AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic weapons, taking up a major Second Amendment dispute that it had previously declined to address.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a “gun rights” challenge to state bans on weapons like the AR-15.

A Supreme Court that has expanded gun rights will consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles often called assault weapons violate the Second Amendment.