In August, the Fourth Circuit US Appeals Court upheld for a second time Maryland’s law banning the sale or possession of assault-style weapons. The State law was enacted in 2013 in the wake of the mass shootings in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed at an elementary school by a person using an AR-15 rifle. UULM-MD actively supported the measure when it was passed by the Maryland General Assembly.
Doubts about the ban resurfaced after the landmark 2008 case of District of Columbia v. Heller where the US Supreme Court adopted a more expansive view of the Second Amendment, and gun rights advocates sued for the second time on the theory that the Heller decision would bolster the case for unrestricted ownership of assault weapons.
Writing for the majority in the 10-5 decision, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III cited the Heller decision’s finding that held that the Second Amendment does not guarantee “a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose” and that weapons with firepower far exceeding the needs of self-defense “may be banned.”1 The Court ultimately endorsed the Maryland law, stating: “Our nation has a strong tradition of regulating excessively dangerous weapons once it becomes clear that they are exacting an inordinate toll on public safety and societal wellbeing.”2
The Maryland Attorney General’s Office led the defense of the law and Attorney General Anthony Brown issued a statement saying: “The Court’s decision today will save lives. Access to weapons of war that have no place in our communities causes senseless and preventable deaths. I commend the Court for its decision. We will continue to vigorously defend common-sense gun safety laws that protect Maryland residents.”
1 Washington Post, August 6, 2024.
2 Brian Sears, Maryland Matters, August 6, 2024.
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