A federal appeals court has upheld the assault rifle ban Maryland lawmakers passed in 2013, concluding that the powerful military-style guns outlawed by the measure are not entitled to protection under the Second Amendment.
The ruling, issued by the entire Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, reverses a decision by a smaller panel of judges from the court last year that called the law's constitutionality into question.
The bill was steered through the Maryland Senate by then-Sen. Brian E. Frosh in the wake of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Since elected as the state's attorney general, he has defended the law in court.
The law, which also outlawed magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, was among several that have tested how courts would consider new gun restrictions in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that found at least some firearms were constitutionally protected. That decision is known as Heller.
"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 Robert B. King wrote for the court. Four other courts have upheld similar restrictions in other states, King wrote.
A federal appeals court dealt a potentially serious blow to Maryland's landmark 2013 gun control law and similar measures across the country, ruling Tuesday that a lower court was wrong when it upheld the state's ban on assault rifles.
In a 2-1 decision applauded by gun rights advocates, a three-judge...
A federal appeals court dealt a potentially serious blow to Maryland's landmark 2013 gun control law and similar measures across the country, ruling Tuesday that a lower court was wrong when it upheld the state's ban on assault rifles.
In a 2-1 decision applauded by gun rights advocates, a three-judge...
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