Overview
- The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc ruled that New Jersey’s prohibition on semiautomatic center‑fire rifles and its limit on magazines holding more than 10 rounds violate the Second Amendment.
- The full panel reached the decision by a 10–5 vote and extended earlier district court reasoning that an AR‑15 ban is unconstitutional to cover a broader class of semiautomatic rifles.
- The court applied the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen standard, which requires modern gun rules to be supported by historical analogues, and found New Jersey’s measures inconsistent with that test.
- The ruling deepens an already mixed patchwork of lower‑court outcomes because other federal and state courts have recently upheld similar bans, and the Supreme Court will hear consolidated challenges this term.
- If the high court sides with challengers it could invalidate many state and local assault‑weapon and magazine limits, while the current split means enforcement and availability of these weapons will vary across jurisdictions until a definitive ruling.