Two Dozen AGs Urge SCOTUS To Take Magazine Ban Case

The Supreme Court has already accepted one very important Second Amendment case this year, and a group of two dozen Republican Attorneys General are hoping that the Court is willing and ready to hear another challenge; this one taking on the state of New Jersey’s ban on possessing ammunition magazines that can accept more than ten rounds.

The case, known as Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs v. Gurbir Grewal, is scheduled to come up in conference in two weeks, and it could be one of the last cases that justices accept before they recess for the summer. The 24 AGs, led by the Attorneys General of Arizona and Louisiana, argue in their brief that New Jersey’s draconian gun ban, which demanded current owners of “high capacity” magazines turn them over to police or remove them from their possession, is an egregious violation of the right to keep and bear arms.

The enumerated right to bear arms reflected in the Second Amendment is fundamental and predates the Bill of Rights. The right is important to millions of Americans, including many citizens living in disadvantaged communities. The arms at issue in these proceedings are commonly used by millions of law-abiding citizens for a myriad of lawful purposes. New Jersey’s law criminalizes mere possession of commonly-used arms even in the home for self defense, and therefore the law strikes at the core of the Second Amendment. New Jersey’s outright ban on the Affected Magazines is inconsistent with the Second Amendment, and the Third Circuit erred by concluding otherwise.

According to the AGs brief, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals used the wrong test to determine that New Jersey’s magazine ban didn’t violate anyone’s constitutional rights; erroneously applying an “interest balancing test” when it should have used the test that the Supreme Court used in the Heller case back in 2008.