State's ban on assault weapons likely constitutional, federal appeals court rules
A Massachusetts law that bans assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices is likely to survive a Second Amendment challenge, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Boston ruled last week. (Image from Shutterstock)
A Massachusetts law that bans assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition feeding devices is likely to survive a Second Amendment challenge, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Boston ruled last week.
The appeals court ruled April 17 that the ban is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulation, a test established in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.
The plaintiffs challenging the ban are Massachusetts resident Joseph R. Capen, who wanted to buy weapons covered by the ban, and the National Association for Gun Rights, a nonprofit organization. A federal trial court had denied their motion for a preliminary injunction. The 1st Circuit affirmed.
The appeals court said the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed in their facial challenge to the law, which requires a showing that a law is unconstitutional in all its applications.
Focusing on the law’s ban on the Colt AR-15 rifle, the appeals court said it does not impose a heavy burden on civilian self-defense.
“For one thing,” the appeals court said, the challengers “do not demonstrate a single instance where the AR-15—or any other banned weapon—has actually been used in a self-defense scenario.”
Second, the appeals court said the Massachusetts law is consistent with historical regulations that banned or regulated specific weapons once their danger to public safety became clear. Historical examples cited by the state included bans on trap guns, long-bladed “Bowie” knives, blunt instruments, sawed-off shotguns and machine guns.
“The Massachusetts ban’s AR-15 restriction does not place a historically anomalous burden on self-defense,” the 1st Circuit said.
The appeals court also said the ban on high-capacity magazines is consistent with its 2024 decision, which found that a ban on the devices in Rhode Island was likely constitutional.
Judge Gary Katzmann of the U.S. Court of International Trade, who was sitting by designation on the 1st Circuit panel, wrote the opinion, Capen v. Campbell.
Bloomberg Law and Reuters are among the publications with coverage of the decision.
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