Federal Judge Rules AR-Style Rifles Not Covered by Second Amendment

U.S. Federal Judge Catherine C. Blake has released a lengthy opinion which essentially says guns regulated by Maryland last year, including the AR-15 and the AK-style rifle-along with other magazine fed, semi-automatics fall outside Second Amendment protections, calling them “dangerous and unusual arms.” The opinion comes in a case brought by the Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore, Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) brought challenging the constitutionality of Maryland’s new law.

Among her arguments, Judge Blake wrote that “the court was not persuaded that assault weapons are commonly possessed based on the absolute number of those weapons owned by the public.” Blake went on to write that, even accepting the 8.2 million “assault weapons” in civilian hands, they represented no more than three percent of the current civilian gun stock with ownership “highly concentrated” into less than one-percent of the U.S. population.—courtesy Outdoor Wire