A federal appeals court ruled Friday that New Jersey's ban on AR-15 style rifles and high-capacity magazines violates the Second Amendment, the first time any U.S. circuit court has struck down a state assault weapons ban.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10-5 that New Jersey's restrictions on semiautomatic rifles and magazines holding more than 10 rounds cannot survive the historical test the Supreme Court laid out in its 2022 Bruen decision. It is the first time a federal appeals court has found a state assault weapons ban unconstitutional, and it lands squarely in the middle of a fight the Supreme Court itself is now preparing to settle.
Writing for the majority, U.S. Circuit Judge Arianna Freeman said the Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment rulings make clear that bans on weapons in common use for lawful purposes cannot stand, "even when the regulations are passed with the intention of reducing gun violence." The Philadelphia-based court also struck down New Jersey's 10-round magazine cap, reversing a lower court that had upheld it.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport noted that every other federal circuit court to consider the question has ruled the opposite way, upholding similar bans in other states. That split is precisely why the outcome matters beyond Trenton. Under Bruen, gun laws survive only if the government can show they fit within the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation, not merely that a legislature judged them a good idea. New Jersey lawmakers passed the ban years ago aiming at rifles like the AR-15, and the state has defended it through multiple rounds of litigation. Friday's 10-5 vote shows how divided even the judges assigned to apply that standard remain.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's administration is expected to seek further review, either by asking the full 3rd Circuit to rehear the case en banc or by appealing directly. Whether the ruling takes effect immediately or the court stays its own mandate while that plays out is the next thing to watch. A stay would leave the ban in place a while longer even as its legal foundation crumbles underneath it.
The Supreme Court is already circling this exact question
The timing is not a coincidence so much as a collision. The Supreme Court agreed last month to review lower court rulings that upheld assault weapons bans in Cook County, Illinois, and in Connecticut, teeing up the first real chance for the justices to resolve, nationwide, whether states can ban the most commonly owned semiautomatic rifles in America. With a 6-3 conservative majority that has already delivered Bruen and its predecessor decisions expanding Second Amendment protections, gun rights advocates see real momentum. The 3rd Circuit's ruling does not bind the Cook County or Connecticut cases, but it hands the Supreme Court a fresh, detailed opinion applying Bruen's historical-tradition test to strike down exactly the kind of law now before it.
That makes the New Jersey case less a final word than an opening argument. If the Supreme Court affirms the reasoning coming out of Philadelphia, assault weapons bans on the books in California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and several other states could fall in short order. If it goes the other way, New Jersey's law likely survives in some form and the 3rd Circuit's ruling becomes a footnote.
For now, gun owners in New Jersey are watching a real legal opening, not a settled one. The state is all but certain to fight the ruling through further appeals, and the Supreme Court's own docket on Cook County and Connecticut means the country will get a definitive answer on assault weapons bans within the next year, one way or the other. Until then, New Jersey's ban stands on paper while a federal appeals court has already told the state its legal footing is gone.
Also read: Twelve Virginia sheriffs and 17 prosecutors refuse to enforce the new AR-15 ban • Florida court strikes 18-to-20 concealed carry ban as unconstitutional • Armed Shoppers Stopped a Missouri Grocery Store Killer on Memorial Day
