The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has overturned New Jersey's restrictions on AR-15 rifles and 10-round magazine capacities. This 10-5 ruling applies the Supreme Court's historical test to invalidate the state's broad ban on semiautomatic center-fire rifles.

The Third Circuit's 10-5 blow to New Jersey's rifle ban

In a decisive 10-5 ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit determined that New Jersey's prohibitions on certain firearms failed to meet constitutional standards. According to the report, the appellate court did not merely agree with a lower court's finding regarding AR-15 rifles; it expanded the scope of the ruling to cover the entire category of semiautomatic center-fire rifles.

This expansion is a critical legal pivot. By ruling that the constitutional defect applies to a broad class of weapons rather than specific models, the Third Circuit has challenged the very foundation of most state-level assault weapons bans. These laws typically prohibit entire categories of firearms, a strategy that the court now suggests may be incompatible with the Second Amendment.

From 15 to 10: The collapse of New Jersey's magazine restrictions

The Third Circuit also reversed a previous lower court decision that had upheld New Jersey's limit on magazine capacity.. The report says that the court found the state's 10-round restriction violated the Second Amendment when measured against the required historical tradition test.

New Jersey's regulatory path has been one of increasing restriction. The state initially implemented its assault weapons ban in response to a mass shooting at a California elementary school, targeting specific models and "substantially identical" firearms. In 2018, New Jersey further tightened these rules by lowering the maximum allowed magazine capacity from fifteen rounds to ten rounds,a restriction that has now been invalidated.

Applying the 2022 Bruen test to semiautomatic center-fire rifles

The legal engine driving this decision is the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Bruen. This precedent mandates that any modern firearm regulation must be consistent with the United States' historical tradition of firearm regulation to be considered constitutional.

The application of the Bruen test in this case signals a dramatic shift in judicial evaluation. Rather than weighing the government's interest in public safety against an individual's right to bear arms, the courts are now focused almost exclusively on historical analogues. This shift makes it significantly harder for states like New Jersey to justify categorical bans on modern semiautomatic weapons if no similar categorical ban existed in the founding era .

How Illinois and Connecticut cases will define the national standard

The Third Circuit's decision arrives as the Justice Department, under the Trump administration, pursues separate Second Amendment lawsuits against Virginia and other Democratic-led states to invalidate their assault weapons laws. This creates a volatile legal environment for state legislatures attempting to maintain strict gun control.

The ultimate resolution now rests with the Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear challenges to similar bans in Illinois and Connecticut during its next term.. A primary open question remains: will the Supreme Court adopt the Third Circuit's broad interpretation covering all semiautomatic center-fire rifles, or will it maintain a narrower focus on specific models? Because the source focuses on the Third Circuit's ruling and the Supreme Court's docket, the specific arguments being prepared by the states of Illinois and Connecticut remain unverified.