A Federal Appeals Court Just Struck Down a State “Assault Weapons” Ban. That Has Never Happened Before.
The full Third Circuit struck down New Jersey’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” and its 10-round magazine limit on Friday, ruling 10 to 5 that both violate the Second Amendment. The case is Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General New Jersey (Nos. 24-2415, 24-2450 and 24-2506), decided en banc, which…
The full Third Circuit struck down New Jersey’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” and its 10-round magazine limit on Friday, ruling 10 to 5 that both violate the Second Amendment. The case is Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General New Jersey (Nos. 24-2415, 24-2450 and 24-2506), decided en banc, which is legal-speak for all fifteen judges instead of the usual three.
The streak: no federal appeals court had ever struck down a state “assault weapons” ban. The First, Second, Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits all heard challenges to bans like this one, and every single one voted to keep them.
Even the dissent kept score that way. Judge Patty Shwartz described the banned guns as weapons “so lethal that every other Court of Appeals to review a law regulating them has upheld it against constitutional challenge.” New Jersey just took the streak’s first loss, and it took it at home.
The law they struck is one of the country’s oldest. New Jersey passed it in 1990, criminalizing possession of more than thirty listed rifles, pistols, and shotguns, the “Colt AR-15” first among them, plus anything “substantially identical.”
Owners who already had one got a grandfather clause with homework: register the rifle, prove it was bought on or before May 1, 1990, and join a rifle or pistol club within 210 days of the law taking effect. Miss a step and possession is a felony.
Writing for the majority, Judge Arianna Freeman said Heller and Bruen “teach that bans or broad prohibitions on possessing or carrying of a class of weapons in common use for lawful purposes fail to find support in our Nation’s tradition of firearm regulation.” Then the sentence that will get quoted in every brief from here on: “That is so even when the regulations are passed with the intention of reducing gun violence.”
The magazine half: the court was just as direct about the 10-round cap. “The text of the Second Amendment covers all magazines, not just magazines that New Jersey considers ‘standard capacity,’” Freeman wrote.
That sentence quietly retires the court’s own 2018 decision, which upheld this exact magazine limit under the old pre-Bruen framework. Same court, same law, same case name, opposite answer.
Freeman is a Biden appointee and former federal public defender. The ten votes to strike the law came from judges appointed by Presidents Bush, Trump, and Biden; five judges dissented in whole or in part.
The fine print: Friday’s holding covers semi-automatic rifles, the heart of the banned list. The statute’s listed pistols and shotguns go back to the district court for another round under the same test.
And nothing changes at the gun counter today. The ruling isn’t final until the mandate issues, the state can ask the Supreme Court to step in, and Attorney General Jennifer Davenport called the decision “as unfortunate as it is legally incorrect,” saying New Jersey is “considering our options.”
The plaintiffs, for their part, spent Friday spiking the football. Firearms Policy Coalition president Brandon Combs called the ruling a “devastating blow to the authoritarian war on gun owners.”
Colt CR6920 M4 Carbine (5.56 NATO)
New Jersey’s statute bans the Colt AR-15 by name, and the district court built its entire analysis on this exact model. If the ruling sticks, this is the rifle that walks back into the state first.
The collision course: at the end of June the Supreme Court agreed to hear Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, the Illinois and Connecticut ban challenges, with argument expected this fall. Nine days after that grant, the Seventh Circuit upheld Illinois’ ban anyway.
A circuit split is what makes Supreme Court review urgent, and one now exists on the exact question the justices already took. Whatever they say about Illinois and Connecticut will decide whether Friday’s ruling becomes the national rule or a footnote.
If it sticks: New Jersey has banned the AR-15, America’s best-selling rifle, for 36 years. A final win would reopen one of the last closed markets in the country, for the rifles and for standard 30-round magazines alike.
If you’re in New Jersey: nothing is legal today that wasn’t legal Thursday. Watch the mandate, not the headlines.
For now the case heads back to the district court for the pistols-and-shotguns round while the state weighs its next move. The streak is over. The season isn’t: the Supreme Court hears the main event this fall.
Do you think the Supreme Court locks this ruling in next year? Let us know in the comments.
Live where you can actually buy one? Our Best AR-15s guide ranks the rifles worth your money.
Magpul PMAG 30 GEN M3 (5.56, 30-round)
The magazine that ships standard with most AR-15s is exactly what New Jersey’s law calls ‘large capacity.’ The Third Circuit went the other way: the Second Amendment ‘covers all magazines.’ About twelve bucks each.
Sources: the Third Circuit’s en banc opinion, N.J. Stat. § 2C:39-1(w), the Supreme Court docket in Viramontes v. Cook County, JURIST on the cert grant, and Shore News Network on the state’s response.
Justin Trump is the managing editor and owner of CAT Outdoors. The son of a Vietnam veteran, he’s a Certified Glock Armorer, an avid gun enthusiast and 2A advocate. He holds two firearm patents for the CAT M4 and Talon tools. When not managing CAT Outdoors, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, rooting for Michigan sports teams, and serving his church.