By Nate Raymond
July 17 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that New Jersey’s assault-weapons law barring possession of semiautomatic rifles like AR-15s and large capacity magazines containing more than 10 rounds of ammunition is unconstitutional.
The ruling by the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marked the first time a federal appeals court had ruled that a state’s assault weapons ban violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.
That issue is already in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed last month to review rulings that had upheld similar bans adopted in Cook County, Illinois, and Connecticut against powerful semiautomatic rifles. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Friday’s ruling came in lawsuits filed by gun rights groups that said New Jersey’s law could no longer stand after the Supreme Court handed down a landmark Second Amendment ruling in 2022 that expanded gun rights.
That decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, held that modern gun restrictions must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
A lower-court judge in 2024 delivered a mixed ruling, holding New Jersey’s ban on AR-15 rifles was unconstitutional but that its prohibition of large-capacity ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds could stand.
The appeals court by a 10-5 vote agreed to go even further, declaring that the ban on all types of semi-automatic rifles, and not just AR-15s, violates the Second Amendment, as does the large-capacity magazine ban.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio)
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