Federal Appeals Court Upholds Maryland’s Ban on Semiautomatic Rifles

A federal appeals court rejected an effort by gun control opponents to throw out Maryland’s ban on semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15, setting up a potential challenge that could further define the limits of the Supreme Court’s sweeping expansion of gun rights in 2022.

By a margin of 10 to 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., ruled that the ban did not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms, or run afoul of requirements that any restriction on firearms ownership be rooted in historical tradition as required by the 2022 ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Maryland’s decade-old assault weapons ban falls outside Second Amendment protections 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,” wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

“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 Wilkinson added in an exhaustive 183-page ruling made public on Tuesday.

Lawyers for one of the main plaintiffs in the case, the Firearms Policy Coalition, said they would ask the Supreme Court to review the case. Their efforts to seek a ruling from the justices before the decision were rebuffed.

In their dissent, the five judges in the minority — all appointed by Republican presidents — accused the majority of ignoring Bruen and other precedents.