Supreme Court hands pro-gun supporters a major setback

The Supreme Court surprised pro-gun supporters on Monday by refusing to hear appeals over a federal law that bans people convicted of nonviolent crimes from purchasing a gun, reports USA Today.

That lifetime ban would include Americans convicted of "driving under the influence, making false statements on tax returns and selling counterfeit cassette tapes from owning a gun," the report states.

The report states that the decision "surprised" Second Amendment advocates hoping the court might chip away at some of the restrictions.

"The decisions Monday, which were handed down without explanation, are the latest in a series of instances in which the Supreme Court has skirted Second Amendment questions. The high court last issued major guns rights rulings in 2008 and 2010, cases that struck down handgun restrictions in the District of Columbia and Chicago," the report states.

"In one of the cases before the court, a Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to driving under the influence in 2005 challenged the ban on purchasing or owning a gun. In another, a Pennsylvania woman who pleaded guilty to making a false statement on her tax returns sued over the ban. In a third, a man who pleaded guilty to counterfeiting and smuggling cassettes in the 1980s challenged the firearms ban," the report states.

For the high court to take up the appeal, five justices would have to signal their willingness to consider them -- which was not the case on Monday.

The court's decision comes after days of mass shootings ranging from one at an Indianapolis FedEx facility to a grocery store in Boulder to massage parlors in Atlanta.

You can read more about the lawsuits here.