Blitz Bureau
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled on Aug. 6 that the ban, which also covers AK47s and Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, does not violate Marylanders’ rights.
The ban was enacted in 2013. Some Maryland residents and gun rights groups sued Maryland in 2020, asserting the laws violate their right to possess guns as enumerated by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
“The state of Maryland’s laws, regulations, policies, practices, and customs individually and collectively deny millions of individuals who reside in Maryland, including plaintiffs, their members and supporters, and others like them, their fundamental, individual right to keep and bear common arms,” they said in the lawsuit. A U.S. district judge dismissed the suit, pointing to the Fourth Circuit’s 2017 ruling in Kolbe v. Hogan which upheld the regulations. The full Fourth Circuit agreed to adjudicate the matter.
In the court’s decision on August 6, the majority said it took up the case with an eye on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that struck down New York gun laws as too restrictive. Justices set forth how courts must analyse challenges to firearm regulations, including the need to see if they’re based on the nation’s historical tradition of restrictions “The assault weapons at issue fall outside the ambit of protection offered by the Second Amendment because, in essence, they are military-style weapons designed for sustained combat operations that are ill-suited and disproportionate to the need for self-defense,” U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote for the majority.
“Moreover, the Maryland law fits comfortably within our nation’s tradition of firearms regulation. It is but another example of a state regulating excessively dangerous weapons once their incompatibility with a lawful and safe society becomes apparent, while nonetheless preserving avenues for armed selfdefense,” he added.
