The US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia, unanimously ruled on Friday that New Jersey's law banning semi-automatic rifles and magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds is unconstitutional. With this decision, the court invalidated not only the ban on AR-15 type rifles but the entire class of semi-automatic rifles covered by the 'assault weapon' ban and the high-capacity magazine restrictions.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) announced the decision as a 'historic victory.' NRA spokesperson Justin Davis said, 'This is an NRA case we've been working on since 2018, so it's a landmark win.' The NRA statement said, 'The Third Circuit has confirmed that commonly owned rifles and standard capacity magazines are protected, and constitutional freedoms cannot be violated by politicians.'
The Court's Reasoning
Judge Arianna Freeman, who wrote the majority opinion, emphasized, citing the Supreme Court's decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that modern gun restrictions must be consistent with America's historical tradition of firearm regulation. The court ruled that New Jersey had failed to provide a historical basis to justify the ban.
Dissenting Opinion
Judges dissenting from the ruling argued that the banned firearms are unusually dangerous, military-style weapons and that states have long had the authority to enact such regulations. The dissenting opinion noted that this decision conflicts with other federal appeals court rulings upholding similar state bans.
The Law's Origin
New Jersey's 'assault weapon law' took effect in 1990, following a school shooting at an elementary school in California. The governor at the time described the banned firearms as having 'mass destruction capacity' and being 'designed to kill the most people in the shortest possible time.'
