Conservative-Leaning Third Circuit Weighs NJ AR-15 Ban (1)

The Third Circuit, with a new majority of Republican-appointed judges, waded into the murky test for gun restrictions Wednesday and questioned whether New Jersey’s assault rifle ban should survive a Second Amendment challenge.

The key question probed by the judges was how to interpret the US Supreme Court’s maxim in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen that the government can regulate “dangerous and unusual” firearms.

“If the question is really that there’s a presumption that once one is bearing arms that’s protected, don’t you have to show a history of there being such a burden and you’d have ...