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With the 3rd<\/sup> Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals set to hear the case concerning New Jersey\u2019s ban on so-called \u201cassault weapons,\u201d the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) recently filed its opening brief explaining why the ban is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n The appeal comes in the case Cheeseman v. Platkin.<\/em> In late July, the District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled<\/a> that the ban on AR-15-style rifles in the home was unconstitutional but left the rest of the restrictions in place. That ruling pleased neither the plaintiff nor the defendant and prompted both sides to file an appeal.<\/p>\n FPC President Brandon Combs said the entire law banning New Jersey residents from owning common firearms must be found unconstitutional.<\/p>\n \u201cThe weapons banned by New Jersey are common numerically, categorically, and jurisdictionally,\u201d Combs said in an FPC press release. \u201cBut too many lower courts are ignoring binding Supreme Court precedent because they do not like what the Constitution means.\u201d<\/p>\n
![<\/a><\/div>\nWith the 3rd<\/sup> Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals set to hear the case concerning New Jersey\u2019s ban on so-called \u201cassault weapons,\u201d the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) recently filed its opening brief explaining why the ban is unconstitutional.<\/p>\nThe appeal comes in the case Cheeseman v. Platkin.<\/em> In late July, the District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled<\/a> that the ban on AR-15-style rifles in the home was unconstitutional but left the rest of the restrictions in place. That ruling pleased neither the plaintiff nor the defendant and prompted both sides to file an appeal.<\/p>\nFPC President Brandon Combs said the entire law banning New Jersey residents from owning common firearms must be found unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\u201cThe weapons banned by New Jersey are common numerically, categorically, and jurisdictionally,\u201d Combs said in an FPC press release. \u201cBut too many lower courts are ignoring binding Supreme Court precedent because they do not like what the Constitution means.\u201d<\/p>\nIn the brief<\/a>, FPC argued that based on U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the case isn\u2019t an overly complicated one, despite the lower court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n\u201cThe principles established by\u00a0Heller\u00a0<\/em>and confirmed by\u00a0Bruen\u00a0<\/em>should make this a straightforward case,\u201d the brief stated. \u201cThe paradigmatic semi-automatic firearm banned by New Jersey is the AR-15 platform rifle. Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court described the AR-15 as a \u2018civilian,\u2019 \u2018commonplace,\u2019 \u2018generally available,\u2019 and \u2018traditionally \u2026 lawful\u2019 firearm. It remains \u2018commonly available,\u2019 and according to the agency charged with administering the Nation\u2019s firearms laws it is \u2018one of the most popular firearms in the United States.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\nThe New Jersey law classifies a wide variety of firearms as \u201cassault weapons.\u201d In addition to listing certain firearms by name, including the Colt AR-15, the law also treats any firearm that is \u201csubstantially identical\u201d as an \u201cassault weapon.\u201d<\/p>\nThe FPC brief argued that the law violates the plaintiffs\u2019 Second Amendment right to bear arms and fails the historical test used in Heller<\/em> and again in Bruen<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cAs to history, the Supreme Court in Heller<\/em> has already done the historical work for this case as well,\u201d the brief stated. \u201cIn holding that the District of Columbia\u2019s ban on handgun possession violated the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court in Heller<\/em> performed a lengthy analysis of the historical restrictions on the scope of the right, and it adduced the following principle: while \u2018dangerous and unusual weapons\u2019 can be banned, arms that are \u2018in common use for lawful purposes\u2019 are per se protected and cannot be.<\/p>\n\u201cThat holding resolves this case, because whether the relevant group of arms is \u2018semiautomatic firearms\u2019 or \u2018assault firearms,\u2019 the fundamental fact is that New Jersey\u2019s law bans a type of firearms that are in common use for lawful purposes.\u201d<\/p>\nIn the end, FPC\u2019s Combs said his organization will continue to target unjust, unconstitutional gun laws wherever they are in effect\u2014including New Jersey.<\/p>\n\u201cThe district court in this case was wrong to uphold the majority of New Jersey\u2019s ban on constitutionally protected arms,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will continue to fight forward and work to eliminate all of these laws throughout the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals set to hear the case concerning New Jersey\u2019s ban on so-called \u201cassault weapons,\u201d the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) recently filed its opening brief explaining why the ban is unconstitutional. The appeal comes in the case Cheeseman v. Platkin. In late July, the District Court for the District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ex1.jpg\"){kind=link}