When the Supreme Court turned away the Snope case after months of deliberating whether to grant cert, Justice Brett Kavanaugh predicted that the justices would decide to hear an "assault weapon" ban challenge in a term or two. There are several cases that are winding their way to the Supreme Court, including the challenges to Illinois' gun and magazine ban, where oral arguments have been scheduled in the Seventh Circuit for September 22 of this year.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, meanwhile, heard oral arguments in two similar cases today. Cheeseman v. Platkin and Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs are both challenges to New Jersey's ban on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines. A district court judge found that "the AR-15 Provision of the Assault Firearms Law is unconstitutional for the Colt AR-15 for use for self-defense in the home," but upheld the state's ban on magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds under the dubious theory that, even though those magazines are in common use for lawful purposes, New Jersey can ban them because it's responding to a threat that did not exist at the time of the Founding or the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment: mass shootings.
The Firearms Policy Coalition was following the oral arguments as they happened, and have a great thread on some of the questions and comments posed to both sides.
Oral arguments are starting now. The other parties challenging the ban are going first https://t.co/cCkvTOXExW
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) July 1, 2025
The panel composed of a Biden appointee, an Obama appointee, and a judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, seemed to wrestle with some basic assumptions about AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles.
The judges are now asking about what role surveys of which guns people own should play in determining if a gun is "common"
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) July 1, 2025
Look, the Supreme Court has already acknowledged that the AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the country. I'd say that's all the evidence the Third Circuit needs to determine that they are in common use.
New Jersey says AR-15s aren't protected by the 2A because people don't need to shoot someone 500 yards away in self-defense
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) July 1, 2025
The Supreme Court has also said that if an arm is in common use for lawful purposes (not limited solely to self-defense) it is, prima facie, protected by the Second Amendment. That would apply not only to the Colt AR-15, but for every other gas-operated centerfire semi-automatic rifle on the market today, and it completely obliterates New Jersey's argument. AR-15s and the like are used for self-defense, but they're also in common use for other lawful activities like hunting and competitive shooting.
Judge Freeman says that NJ's "disproportionate public safety threat" doesn't seem compatible with "common use"
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) July 1, 2025
That's because it's not. New Jersey's essentially claiming that AR-15s and other banned firearms are "unusually dangerous", so they can be banned without violating the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court, however, has held that those arms that are both "dangerous and unusual" fall outside the scope of the right to keep and bear arms.
New Jersey's argument that because (in the state's view) AR-15s aren't regularly used in self-defense they can be banned would turn the Second Amendment on its head. It was just a few years ago that anti-gunners were arguing handguns weren't protected by the Second Amendment, but New Jersey's basically making the case that only handguns (and maybe a few shotguns) are protected arms, with no right to own bolt-action hunting rifles or lever action long guns.
It's a ridiculous argument, and one that the Third Circuit panel should reject outright. We aren't likely to hear from the judges for another few months, but based on FPC's commentary it sounds like there's reason to be optimistic that the Third Circuit will do the right thing and side with the plaintiffs when their ruling comes out.
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