In Life-Saving Ruling, Fourth Circuit Judges Uphold Maryland’s Assault Weapons Ban; Everytown Law Responds

MARYLAND – In a life-saving majority decision, the en banc Fourth Circuit today ruled to uphold Maryland’s ban on assault weapons, in a 10-5 vote. The court’s opinion, authored by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a President Reagan appointee, can be found here. Everytown Law, which submitted an amicus brief in favor of the common sense state law, responded with the following statement: 

“Laws prohibiting assault weapons have consistently and correctly been upheld as constitutional under the Second Amendment by federal trial and appellate courts alike – with countless communities undoubtedly safer as a result,” said Bill Taylor, Deputy Director of Second Amendment Litigation at Everytown Law. “We’re pleased that the Fourth Circuit saw reason and ruled to protect Marylanders from these instruments of mass violence. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Bruen and Rahimi, we have seen an overwhelming trend of lower court rulings upholding these crucial laws. We will fight to ensure this trend continues.”

The Fourth Circuit ruling reads, “The Second Amendment, as elucidated by Heller and Bruen, does not require courts to turn their backs to democratic cries—to pile hopelessness on top of grief. We shudder to imagine the hubris with which a court would disable representative government at the very moment that lethal technologies are proceeding at an accelerated and indeed unprecedented pace.”

Assault weapons are often used in mass shootings and recovered at crime scenes – research shows a prohibition on assault weapons can prevent mass shooting fatalities and active shooter events. More on the critical nature of assault weapons bans can be found here.