7 hours ago
26
A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that New Jersey’s bans on assault firearms and magazines that can hold 10 or more rounds is unconstitutional.
It marks the first time a federal appeals court has struck down a state ban on such weapons, and comes as the US supreme court is set to consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles violate the second amendment in the fall. Just last week, another federal appeals court upheld Illinois’ ban on semiautomatic weapons.
Friday’s appeals court ruling in the New Jersey case goes further than a July 2024 ruling from a federal judge, who said that the state’s ban on AR-15s specifically was unconstitutional but upheld the provision barring larger magazines.
The third US circuit court of appeals said on Friday in its opinion that the state’s ban on all semiautomatic rifles it deems to be “assault firearms” and its restriction on “large capacity ammunition magazines” were unconstitutional.
New Jersey’s attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, a Democrat whose office defended the law, told the Associated Press that the decision is “as unfortunate as it is legally incorrect”.
“Every other federal circuit court to consider the issue has come out the other way,” Davenport said. “Assault weapons and large capacity magazines play a dangerous role in the modern epidemic of mass shootings, and New Jersey acted reasonably and lawfully in restricting them. We are considering our options.”
In many states, AR-15s are classified as assault weapons, a legal term used to describe guns that lawmakers determine are meant to be used offensively rather than defensively, based on characteristics such as magazine capacity and the size of the weapon.
In addition to New Jersey, 10 states including California, New York and Delaware, as well as the District of Columbia, have laws that generally ban the manufacture, sale and transfer of assault weapons, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The District of Columbia, New Jersey and 11 other states cap magazine capacity at 10 rounds generally or for certain types of firearms.
In 1994, the federal government enacted a national ban but Congress allowed it to expire in 2004. Democrats have supported renewing it in response to a series of mass shootings. Those efforts have yet to materialize into a new national ban, and states have continued to pass their own laws, including recent measures in Virginia and Rhode Island.
The Connecticut law was passed after a mass shooter used an AR-15 to kill 26 children and educators at the Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012. The state says the guns are a preferred weapon of mass shooters, and they can be banned because they are similar to military-grade weapons. Studies have shown that states that enact stricter gun control measures show a decrease in the leading cause of death for US children.
Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Associated Press that Friday’s ruling was surprising because federal courts of appeals have upheld assault weapons bans in the past. On the other hand, he added, the decision “may be foretelling the supreme court’s coming opinion on assault weapons bans”.
“What this third circuit opinion shows is that there are very few gun laws that are safe from being struck down right now,” Winkler said.
It is the latest high-profile dispute over guns to reach the supreme court since its conservative majority handed down a landmark ruling in 2022 that expanded second amendment rights and spawned challenges to firearm laws around the country.
It also comes on the heels of two recent victories for second amendment attorneys and advocates. On 18 June the supreme court sided with a Texas man and prospective gun owner who argued that policies that bar marijuana users from gun ownership violate the second amendment. The following week, the court’s conservative majority struck down a Hawaii law that prohibits people from bringing a gun on to private property without the consent of the property’s owner.
