In a significant legal development, a federal appeals court declared on Friday that New Jersey’s prohibition on assault guns and high-capacity magazines surpassing 10 rounds is unconstitutional.
This groundbreaking decision marks the first instance where a federal appeals court has invalidated a state’s restrictions on these weapons. The ruling coincides with the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming consideration of whether limits on semiautomatic rifles contradict the Second Amendment. Interestingly, a separate federal appeals court recently upheld Illinois’ restrictions on similar firearms.
The latest ruling from the appeals court expands upon a federal judge’s July 2024 decision, which found New Jersey’s AR-15 ban unconstitutional but maintained the ban on larger-capacity magazines. On Friday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded in its opinion that both the state’s comprehensive ban on so-called “assault firearms” and its restrictions on “large capacity ammunition magazines” violate constitutional rights.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, representing the law’s defense in this case, expressed her dissatisfaction, calling the ruling “as unfortunate as it is legally incorrect.”
Davenport further noted, “Every other federal circuit court considering the issue has reached the opposite conclusion. Assault weapons and large capacity magazines contribute significantly to the current epidemic of mass shootings, and New Jersey acted prudently and within the law by restricting them. We are evaluating our next steps.”
John Commerford, executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, called the ruling a “historic victory for the NRA, the Second Amendment, and law-abiding Americans.”
Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said 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. ___
Kelety reported from Phoenix.