Appeals Court Rules Assault Weapons Like the AR-15 Are ‘Weapons of War’ and Not Protected by Second Amendment

Historic Ruling 

In a landmark 10-4 ruling a federal appeals court Wednesday morning upheld a 2013 Maryland law that bans 45 different assault weapons, calling them “weapons of war.” Judge Robert King of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in his majority opinion, “we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war.” The ruling also upholds Maryland’s law that limits gun magazines to no more than 10 rounds, the AP reports.

Judge King also made clear the Supreme Court’s Heller decision excluded these weapons from protection. 

The ruling applies to “semiautomatic guns with certain military-style features,” The Washington Post notes. 

It is a major, indeed historic blow to the NRA and gun manufacturers, and a major win for the safety and protection of all Americans. 

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, who pushed for the law as a state senator, called the ruling “a very strong opinion,” and noted “it has national significance, both because it’s en-banc and for the strength of its decision.” Appeals courts generally choose three judges to hear and decide a case. En-banc rulings include all the court’s judges.

“Both before and after Newtown, similar military-style rifles and detachable magazines have been used to perpetrate mass shootings in places whose names have become synonymous with the slaughters that occurred there,” King wrote. The AP notes King “listed the 2012 shootings at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado; the December 2015 shootings in San Bernardino, California; and the shootings last year at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, where 49 people were killed and 53 injured.”

The Maryland law was passed in response to the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut massacre of 20 Sandy Hook six and seven year-old students and six teachers and administrators.

The NRA issued a stern statement, saying it is “absurd to hold that the most popular rifle in America is not a protected ‘arm’ under the Second Amendment.”

Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence applauded the ruling, and called for Maryland’s law “to become a national model of evidence-based policies that will reduce gun violence.”

An appeal should be expected.

Image by TheAlphaWolf via Wikimedia. For illustration use only.