Federal Appeals Court Decides to Uphold Ban of “Military Style” Rifles

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Maryland state legislature voted in 2013 to ban certain firearms with military features, as well as the sale magazines that held more than 10 rounds. The ban was almost immediately challenged, and eventually worked its way up to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Recently the court voted 10-4 to uphold the gun ban as constitutional, thus overriding a previous decision that ruled the ban unconstitutional. The decision not only protects Maryland’s gun laws, but also similar gun restrictions that were enacted in California, New Jersey, and Connecticut after the Sandy Hook Shooting. The case is among several that have tested the 2008 District vs Heller Supreme Court decision, which determined that the Second Amendment was in fact an individual right.

So given the gravity of the case, it seems likely that it will eventually find its way to the Supreme Court. So far the Supreme Court has been reluctant to accept challenges to any of the laws that were passed after the Sandy Hook Shooting, but that could change if Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is approved by Congress. The Supreme Court requires the approval of four justices to take a case, and when Justice Scalia’s replacement is approved, it would most likely give the Supreme Court a conservative majority.

Judge Robert B. King of the Fourth Circuit defended the decision, saying that “We are convinced that the banned assault weapons and large-capacity magazines are among those arms that are ‘like’ ‘M-16 rifles’ — ‘weapons that are most useful in military service’ — which the Heller Court singled out as being beyond the Second Amendment’s reach.”

Judge William B. Traxler however, scolded his peers for voting to approve the gun ban. “The majority has gone to greater lengths than any other court to eviscerate the constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms.”