A federal appeals court upheld Maryland’s ban on certain semi-automatic weapons in a closely-watched Second Amendment case.
Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook in 2012, Maryland enacted a so-called “Assault Weapons” Ban, which bans possessing or selling “assault weapons,” defined to cover dozens of weapons, especially those equipped with standard-capacity magazines.
The law has been challenged in the courts for years.
Last week, in a 10-5 vote, the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Maryland’s law complies with the Supreme Court’s recent expansion of gun rights.
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote the majority, saying:
“We decline to wield the Constitution to declare that military-style armaments which have become primary instruments of mass killing and terrorist attacks in the United States are beyond the reach of our nation’s democratic processes.”
Judge Julius Richardson wrote in the nearly 100-page dissent:
“While history and tradition support the banning of weapons that are both dangerous and unusual, Maryland’s ban cannot pass constitutional muster as it prohibits the possession of arms commonly possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes. In holding otherwise, the majority grants states historically unprecedented leeway to trammel the constitutional liberties of their citizens.”
Read more at Newsmax.
