Last month, a federal judge ruled that New Jersey’s ban on AR-15 rifles was unconstitutional. A week later, a federal appeals court held that a similar ban in Maryland was fully consistent with the Second Amendment.
The dueling decisions reflect fundamental disagreements over whether the Second Amendment allows the government to ban guns typically used for lawful purposes (as opposed to “dangerous and unusual weapons”). Based on Supreme Court precedent, the answer seems clear.
The court issued a landmark ruling in 2008 District of Columbia v. HellerOverturned the local handgun ban, pointing to the “historic tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons'” and saying it did not include firearms “commonly used” for “lawful purposes such as self-defense.” The report stated that since handguns are a “typical self-defense weapon” and are often used by criminals, this fact does not justify prohibiting law-abiding Americans from owning handguns.
Court decisions in 2022 New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Brunn This was reiterated. “Whatever the likelihood that handguns were considered ‘dangerous and unusual’ in colonial times, there is no doubt that they are ‘commonly used’ today for self-defense,” the court concluded, “prohibited carrying “Pistols” colonial laws “provide no justification for laws restricting the public carrying of a weapon that is undoubtedly in common use today.”
The AR-15 is also “undoubtedly common today.” Since 1990, more than 28 million “modern sporting rifles” have been sold in the United States, and as many as 24 million Americans own AR-15 or similar rifles for legal purposes such as self-defense, hunting and recreational target shooting.
like controversial laws HellerU.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan said last month that New Jersey’s AR-15 ban amounted to a “total ban.” [of] Commonly used self-defense guns at home. Heller“Explicitly prohibiting a class of commonly used self-defense weapons as illegal.”
Sheridan emphasized that the testimony showed that “the AR-15 is very suitable for self-defense.” By contrast, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week declared that such rifles were “unfit and disproportionate to the needs of self-defense” when it upheld Maryland’s AR-15 ban.
In a dissent filed by four colleagues, Judge Julius Richardson noted that this conclusion ignored the self-defense advantages of the AR-15, including better accuracy, greater recoil absorption and greater braking power than handguns. Richardson said that while handguns also have certain advantages, the appeals court is not in a position to “supersede” gun owners by second-guessing themselves as they weigh the pros and cons of these rifles.[ing] Americans have their own ideas about their own utility.
Richardson believes AR-15s have self-defense advantages, while most agree AR-15s are particularly deadly in mass shootings. These conflicting views illustrate the folly of trying to draw a legal distinction between guns that are suitable for legitimate purposes and guns that allegedly serve no purpose other than killing innocent people.
The Fourth Circuit’s opinion describes these horrific crimes in detail but lacks the analysis the case requires. the bridgewhich said gun control laws must be “consistent with this country’s historical tradition of gun control.” There are some common distortions in appeals court discussions of mass shootings.
The Fourth Circuit called the AR-15 the “weapon of choice” in mass shootings, although they noted that most mass shooters choose other types of firearms. It emphasizes their military pedigree, which Richardson noted is common for civilian firearms, as well as their destructive power, which is also possessed by many rifles not banned in Maryland.
The appeals court has never acknowledged that mass shootings account for only a small percentage of gun homicides, nor that handguns play a much larger role in murders than any type of rifle. Therefore, it never directly opposed the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller: The criminal use of firearms does not negate the right of law-abiding Americans to own firearms. It appears the justices will have to remind lower courts of this principle.
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