DOVER, Del. — Lawyers for gun rights groups urged a federal appeals court on Monday to overturn a judge’s refusal to halt enforcement of Delaware laws banning certain semiautomatic firearms and restricting the size of firearm magazines.
Andrews ruled last year that the firearms and large-capacity magazines targeted by the laws are presumptively protected by the Second Amendment. Nevertheless, he refused to issue an injunction, saying the state had sufficiently established that the weapons and magazines “implicate dramatic technological change and unprecedented societal concerns for public safety.”
“Every second of every day that Delaware’s law is enforced, it is preventing my plaintiffs from exercising their Second Amendment rights,” John Ohlendorf, an attorney representing the Firearms Policy Coalition and other appellants, told a three-judge panel in Philadelphia. “Common use is not and cannot be the exclusive criterion for Second Amendment analysis,” New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum argued.
Judge Jane Roth seized on the self-defense issue, suggesting that it’s not enough for opponents of the law to say only that the banned firearms are capable of being used for self-defense, instead of showing that they are commonly used for that purpose. Murphy said arguments that the weapons can be banned because they are not typically used for self-defense are contrary to U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The court has rejected the idea that possession of semiautomatic handguns for self-defense can be banned as long as possession of other firearms is allowed, she said. Murphy also argued that any “bearable arm” that can be carried and can be used for self-defense is protected by the Second Amendment.
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