Constant Struggle in the Courts over the 2nd Amendment

Court Upholds Ban on ‘Unusually Dangerous Weapons’

A federal appeals court Thursday refused to block two Connecticut gun control laws despite arguments that they violated the Second Amendment.

The laws faced two separate challenges from the National Association for Gun Rights, the Second Amendment Foundation, and others, who asked the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to temporarily block the laws.

But on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the court declined to do so, saying the laws were constitutional because they preserved “numerous legal alternatives for self-defense” despite their restriction of “unusually dangerous weapons.”

The challenged laws included a 2013 ban on certain firearms and large capacity magazines—passed in response to the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, CT—and a 2023 law that further restricted access to what gun control advocates call “assault weapons.”

The groups opposing the laws based their challenge largely on the 2022 Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which said that laws restricting guns must be rooted in U.S. “history and tradition.” They also cited District of Columbia v. Heller, a landmark case from 2008 that held that the Second Amendment “confer[s] an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

The National Association for Gun Rights says it plans to return to the district court, where the case will be heard on the merits.

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