One such case of the latter was decided this week, and the final judgment is far from rendered. In Bianchi v. Brown, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday declared that Maryland’s prohibition on popular sporting rifles such as the AR-15 and other similar models passed constitutional muster.
A united front of Second Amendment advocates, including the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and individual plaintiffs challenged the state’s controversial ban on semi-automatic weapons.
The appeals court ruled, in a 10-5 decision, that the law would stand—at least for now. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote the decision.
He expressed the majority’s belief that the Second Amendment only applies to certain firearms and not “any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
The jurist added that arms that help a person exercise their right to self-defense are generally considered to be protected by the Bill of Rights. However, from there, he appeared to err in his logic.
For one, the 65-page opinion asserted that these so-called “assault weapons” are “military-style” and “designed for sustained combat operations that are ill-suited and disproportionate to the need for self-defense.”
Not military, but military “style.” They bear a resemblance to other weapons but do not function in the same manner, and that is enough for a blanket ban?
The leaps in logic hardly stopped there.
“But other weapons,” Wilkinson added, “variously referred to as ‘dangerous or unusual,’ could be banned without infringing upon the right to bear arms.” He later added that Maryland prohibited “AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles with characteristics that make them…highly unusual in society.”
Unusual? Far from it.
According to the latest data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), there are a staggering 28,144,000 modern sporting rifles in circulation in the U.S. The 2023 figures accumulated records from 2021.
In other words, tens of millions of law-abiding citizens exercise their Second Amendment rights to sport shooting and self-defense by choosing these popular weapons.
The Fourth Circuit ruling drew dissent from five judges. They noted, “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right subject to the whimsical discretion of federal judges. Its mandate is absolute and, applied here, unequivocal…In holding otherwise, the majority grants states historically unprecedented leeway to trammel the constitutional liberties of their citizens.”
NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi noted these firearms are anything but unusual in U.S. society. “The data continues to show that the Modern Sporting Rifle is the most popular centerfire rifle sold in America today with over 28.1 million in circulation and being used for lawful purposes every day.”
But the Fourth Circuit deemed these firearms “unusual.”
The SAF quickly announced this week that the gun rights organization will seek a Supreme Court review of the decision, which could allow the high court to determine whether this popular rifle is indeed “unusual.”
SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut presented his group’s position. “We believe that, much like in Kolbe, the court’s analysis is flawed and the challenged law is unconstitutional. We will be filing a petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court, as this case presents an excellent vehicle for the Court to settle this debate once and for all.”
If the high court rules on the issue, it will go far toward settling disputes not only in Maryland but also in California, Illinois, and elsewhere. Second Amendment rights, as previously noted, should not be left to the whims of partisan state lawmakers.
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