U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan did that, at least to an extent, when he ruled on Tuesday that New Jersey’s prohibition of so-called “assault weapons” was unconstitutional. He did not extend this rational thinking to the state’s ban on standard capacity ammunition magazines, rendering his action a split decision.
In an obvious reference to 2022’s high court Bruen decision, Sheridan noted his difficulty in accepting “that certain firearms policy choices are ‘off the table’ when frequently, radical individuals possess and use these same firearms for evil purchases.”
In light of Bruen, the federal judge determined he had no choice but to declare the New Jersey ban on at least one popular sporting rifle unconstitutional.
That weapon was the Colt AR-15, and the ruling did not apply to any other firearms in its class. Sheridan wrote, “the Court’s analysis of the Assault Firearms Law is limited to the firearm with which the Court has been provided the most information: the AR-15.”
The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs and two state gun owners brought the legal challenge.
Sheridan noted that the plaintiffs focused on the Colt AR-15 model instead of all firearms banned by the statute. Therefore, he could only rule on the legality of the prohibition on that particular weapon and not all the firearms affected by the ban.
The judge added criticism for “the reckless inaction of our governmental leaders to address the mass shooting tragedy affecting our Nation.”
Sheridan’s limited though correct ruling did not please New Jersey’s anti-gunners, including Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D). He ripped the decision as having “no support in the text or the history of the Constitution.”
Platkin further declared, “Today’s decision weaponizes the Second Amendment to undermine public safety. The AR-15 is an instrument designed for warfare that inflicts catastrophic mass injuries and is the weapon of choice for the epidemic of mass shootings that have ravaged so many communities across this nation.”
The AG could not be further from the truth.
The AR-15 is, by definition and in practice, a semi-automatic firearm, far removed from the fully automatic weapons deployed on battlefields around the globe. It is merely the fact that it is designed to resemble these firearms that infuriates those who wish to ravage the Second Amendment.
How common is the AR-15? According to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll released last year, a full 20% of U.S. gun owners possess one of these popular sporting rifles.
That’s an estimated 16 million Americans, and the actual tally is quite likely much higher as many do not choose to reveal their gun ownership to pollsters.
In fact, the National Shooting Sports Foundation estimates that over 24.4 million AR-15s and similar firearms are in circulation. This figure coincides with the National Firearms Survey in 2021, which found that some 24.6 million of these sporting rifles are in the hands of U.S. residents.
Roughly 6% of Americans, or 1 in 20, are the proud owners of an AR-15. Whether uninformed or with bad intentions, critics enjoy smearing these law-abiding citizens as possessing “weapons of war” and “assault weapons.”
And while Sheridan reluctantly ruled that certain AR-15s are legal for New Jersey residents to own, he agreed with the state’s prohibition on standard capacity ammunition magazines.
The state altered the maximum capacity from 15 to 10 rounds in 2018. The judge argued that the ban on these standard magazines is legal because it is not specifically addressed in the Bruen or Heller decisions.
Sheridan’s decision left a pathway for ruling that the entire “assault weapon” ban is unconstitutional, and the final word has not likely been spoken on the arbitrary magazine limitation.
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