Victory for Gun Safety in the Courts: District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Washington D.C.’s Life-Saving Law Restricting Large-Capacity Magazines 

WASHINGTON D.C. – Everytown Law, the nation’s largest and most experienced team of gun violence prevention litigators, applauds yesterday’s decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholding Washington D.C.’s law restricting large-capacity magazines in Hanson v. District of Columbia.

The case involves a Second Amendment challenge to D.C.’s law prohibiting possession of magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds of ammunition—which are frequently used in the deadliest mass shootings. Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit affirmed the District Court’s denial of a preliminary injunction, allowing the law to remain in effect.

“Laws prohibiting large-capacity magazines are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment, and have repeatedly been upheld by courts across the country. These instruments of mass violence are a threat to public safety and have no place in our communities,” said Bill Taylor, Deputy Director of Second Amendment Litigation at Everytown Law. “This ruling is great news for communities across D.C. – and affirms once again the constitutionality of common sense, life-saving gun safety laws.”

Everytown filed an amicus brief in the case explaining that the District’s restriction is constitutional under the approach to Second Amendment cases set out in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. The brief can be found here. 

From 2015 to 2022, shootings with four or more people killed where large-capacity magazines were used resulted in nearly five times as many people shot, more than twice as many people killed, and nearly 10 times as many people wounded per incident, on average. Additionally, in that time period, at least eight of the ten deadliest mass shootings involved a large-capacity magazine. 

Currently, 14 states and Washington, D.C. prohibit large-capacity magazines. These laws were repeatedly upheld by federal courts in the fourteen years between the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which first held that there is an individual right under the Second Amendment, and its June 2022 decision in Bruen. Courts applying Bruen, as well as the Supreme Court’s most recent Second Amendment ruling in United States v. Rahimi, have continued to uphold them—including the only three federal courts of appeals to consider this issue since Bruen (the First, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits) and federal district courts in Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.