The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the fundamental parts of those laws, including the ban on possessing semiautomatic assault rifles, do not violate the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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Both laws were created following the December 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, when 26 children and staff at an elementary school were shot and killed by a single gunman. It also outlaws almost 200 weapons listed by make and model, as well as copies or duplicates of those guns.
The laws were opposed by groups supporting gun rights, pistol permit holders and gun sellers. “That may be so”. The number of high-profile shootings has seemingly jumped, precipitating the perceived need for gun control by progressives.
“When used, these weapons tend to result in more numerous wounds, more serious wounds, and more victims”.
New York and Connecticut’s new gun control laws are a few of the toughest in the country, along with those in California, Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts, according to the Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence.
The appeals court said the claim by gun rights groups that the ban on assault weapons will primarily disarm law-abiding citizens was “speculative at best, and certainly not strong enough to overcome the substantial deference we owe to predictive judgments of the legislature on matters of public safety”. The states of New York and Connecticut argued that assault weapons are disproportionately used in crimes and rarely for self-defense or hunting.
“Indeed, plaintiffs themselves acknowledge that there is no class of firearms known as “semiautomatic assualt weapons” – a descriptor they call purely political in nature”, Cabranes wrote.
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The court did, however, strike down a provision of New York law imposing a seven-found load limit and a Connecticut ban on the non-semiautomatic Remington 7615. The particular provision of New York’s law regulating load limits, however, does not survive the requisite scrutiny.
