Great News! US Appeals Court Overturns Maryland Gun Control Ban - Next Step SCOTUS?

[maxparrish]

A federal appeals court dealt a potentially serious blow to Maryland's landmark 2013 gun control law and similar measures across the country, ruling Tuesday that a lower court was wrong when it upheld the state's ban on assault rifles.

In a 2-1 decision applauded by gun rights advocates, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit concluded that the semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines banned by Maryland's Firearm Safety Act "are in common use by law-abiding citizens." As a result, they don't fall under the exception to the right to bear arms that applies to "unusual" weapons such as machine guns and hand grenades, the court said.

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh said Thursday that the decision "conflicts sharply with rulings of other federal appellate courts." Frosh said he would appeal — either to the full 15-member 4th Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-court-guns-20160204-story.html

It is likely to end up at the Supreme Court. The ruling establishes a conflict between the circuit courts, and unless the full-member 4th Circuit decides to hear and rule for the law, the Supreme Oracles will have to be the ones who read the legal entrails and divine a reading.

In the meantime, Maryland illegal gun owners can 'come out of the shadows'...sort of warm and fuzzy given that they are usually actual citizens (unlike those other illegal types).

 

[Trausti]

This is so peculiar. It's like how pornography used to be judged by "community standards." So if you can show that ownership of a type of gun is not uncommon, then it's common and protected by the 2nd Amendment. Neat!

 

[Tom Sawyer]

What a weird country.

When's Trump building the big fence along the border?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

The lesson to take from this is that if more people possessed howitzers, tanks, armored personnel carriers, M60 machine guns, claymores, and bazookas these should by default be legal.

You're right. What a weird country. This is what happens when you can legally bribe lawmakers.

 

[TV and credit cards]

What a weird country.

When's Trump building the big fence along the border?

When's Canada?

 

[untermensche]

Good news for insane cowards that want to live in a violent and deadly society.

 

[maxparrish]

Good news for insane cowards that want to live in a violent and deadly society.

If so, then it's not really good or bad news for those "insane cowards". Assault rifles and 11 round plus mags have a minuscule impact on societal deadly violence.

Hence, it is good news for those who employ reason in the construction of regulatory laws; it is bad news for the "insane brave" who want to ban stuff because their primal unreasoning gut "me-hates" rule.