A federal appeals court on Thursday cast doubt on the legality of Maryland’s 2013 ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines passed after the mass shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
The 2-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit sends the gun-control law back to a lower court for review because it “implicates the core protection of the Second Amendment.”
In its majority opinion, written by Chief Judge William B. Traxler Jr., the court found that the Maryland law “significantly burdens the exercise of the right to arm oneself at home.”
The law bans more than 45 types of assault weapons and clips that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Proponents of the law said such weapons are disproportionately used in mass acts of violence and rarely for self-defense. A federal law banning assault weapons expired in 2004.
A group of gun store owners and others challenged the constitutionality of the law, saying that it violated their Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Opponents of the ban, including the Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association and the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, have said that the prohibited firearms are not military weapons. Many owners have bought the guns for lawful purposes such as self-defense, target practice and hunting.
In a strongly worded dissent, Judge Robert B. King wrote: “Let’s be real: The assault weapons banned by Maryland’s [law] are exceptionally lethal weapons of war” and as such, he said, not constitutionally protected.
The court’s opinion Thursday directs the U.S. District Court to apply a more stringent standard of review to the case.
U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake in Baltimore found that the measure serves the government’s public safety interests without imposing an undue burden on law-abiding gun owners.
Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) helped pass the law as a state senator, said the majority opinion got it wrong.
