Supreme Court Lets Bans Stand on Semi-Automatic Weapons

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a ban on assault weapons but avoided a detailed explanation of the constitutional issues involved.

The dispute arose from a Maryland law that bans weapons like the AR-15, whose high muzzle bullet speed and easy accessibility at gun shops have made it a common gun used in mass shootings.

The ban was challenged by gun rights advocates. They said it violates their Second Amendment right to bear arms.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban. The Richmond, Virginia-based court said AR-15s are most similar to the military M-16 machine guns, which the Supreme Court has ruled are not protected by the Second Amendment.

The Supreme Court decided to let the lower court ruling stand. It declined to hear an appeal that challenged both the Maryland assault rifle ban and a Rhode Island ban on high-capacity gun magazines.

Maryland’s General Assembly prohibited some semi-automatic rifles during the public outrage over the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

A young man shot and killed 26 people with a high-powered gun at the school. Twenty of them were children between 6 and 7 years old.

The Maryland law — which is similar to laws in eight other states and the District of Columbia — makes it illegal to possess, sell, transfer or purchase an “assault long gun” or a “copycat weapon.”

Private Maryland residents, a gun dealer and several Second Amendment advocacy groups filed a lawsuit trying to overturn the law.

The 4th Circuit’s opinion said an assault weapons ban did not violate the Second Amendment because rapid-firing long guns “are military-style weapons designed for sustained combat operations that are ill-suited and disproportionate to the need for self-defense.”

The majority’s opinion also said Maryland’s law is consistent with states’ traditions of regulating dangerous weapons. They described the law as a response to a public safety threat but one that preserves gun ownership for self-defense.

While the lawsuit was pending, two people were killed and 28 injured on July 2, 2023, during a mass shooting in the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood of Baltimore.

Although several guns were used when young people fired at each other during a block party, one gun that police found at the scene was an AR-15. It was the biggest mass casualty shooting in the city’s history.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore used the shooting to emphasize the state’s commitment to combating gun violence.

Gun rights advocates like the Firearms Policy Coalition Inc., Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms argued in a court filing that AR-15s are one of the nation’s most popular guns but the Maryland ban “turns a firearm possessed for lawful purposes by millions of Americans into an item with not even presumptive constitutional protection.”

The Supreme Court’s decision to let the lower court’s ruling stand means the higher court has not separately ruled on AR-15s.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh predicted that will not last long. He said the Supreme Court “should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next term or two.”

The Supreme Court also left intact a Rhode Island ban on large-capacity magazines.

Large capacity magazines generally refer to devices that can hold at least 10 bullets that store and feed the ammunition into guns. They are most commonly used in semi-automatic rifles and handguns.

An appellate decision said the magazine ban “imposes no meaningful burden on the ability of Rhode Island residents to defend themselves.” 

The cases are Snope et al. v. Brown et al. and Ocean State Tactical LLC et al. v. Rhode Island et al. in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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