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Family members of victims killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold state and local bans on AR-15-style rifles. The parents of five first-graders and relatives of one educator who died in the tragic event filed a "friend of the court" brief on Wednesday, supporting the bans in Connecticut and Chicago.

The relatives argue that the AR-15 rifle is unusually and extremely lethal, causing high body counts and devastating injuries. They seek to protect other American families from experiencing a similar AR-15 killing spree. Gun rights advocates, on the other hand, argue that banning semiautomatic rifles violates the Second Amendment, stating that such rifles are designed for military use and are too dangerous for civilians.

A total of 40+ organizations have submitted "amicus curiae" briefs in favor of the rifle bans. The Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, using an AR-15-style rifle. The massacre prompted Connecticut to ban such rifles in 2013, the same law now before the Supreme Court. Jennifer Hensel, whose daughter Avielle was killed, said that her daughter was shot multiple times in the face and that authorities told her she wouldn't recognize Avielle's body.

Another victim's mother, Nicole Hockley, co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise, urged the Supreme Court to consider children's safety and warned against the catastrophic and obscene effects of these weapons on children's bodies. Gun rights advocates argue that while they sympathize with gun violence victims' families, solving or mitigating school shootings is not about banning a type of gun.

Instead, they suggest focusing on proper school security to respond to shootings quickly and deter attacks from happening in the first place.