Maryland ban on assault-style weapons upheld by U.S. appeals court [View all]
Source: Washington Post
LEGAL ISSUES
Maryland ban on assault-style weapons upheld by U.S. appeals court
4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly cites seminal ‘Heller’ decision, which enshrined right to arms for self-defense but not for mass murder.
By Tom Jackman and Rachel Weiner
August 6, 2024 at 6:27 p.m. EDT
Maryland can ban assault-style weapons
such as the AR-15, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, bolstering gun control efforts across the country under legal threat.
The majority ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit written by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, was joined by eight judges, with seven others penning a concurring opinion. Wilkinson repeatedly cited the landmark 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court upheld a Second Amendment right to possess a firearm at home for self-defense. That ruling also held that the Second Amendment does not guarantee “a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose” and weapons with firepower far exceeding the needs of self-defense “may be banned.”
After dissecting how high-powered assault rifles are ineffective and inappropriate for self-defense, and recounting in some detail the horrors of mass shootings in the United States, the court endorsed the Maryland law by saying, “Our nation has a strong tradition of regulating excessively dangerous weapons once it becomes clear that they are exacting an inordinate toll on public safety and societal wellbeing.”
The ruling is an expected but welcome victory for gun regulation advocates, who are fighting hundreds of lawsuits spurred by a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said such restrictions must be in line with the country’s “history and tradition.”
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By Tom Jackman
Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Washington Post since 1998 and anchors the True Crime blog. He previously covered crime and courts for the Kansas City Star. Twitter
By Rachel Weiner
Rachel Weiner covers federal courts in Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Va. Twitter
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/06/maryland-assault-weapons-ban-upheld/
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