Gun Owners’ Challenge to D.C. Magazine Limit Fails on Appeal (1)

Washington, D.C.'s ban on extra-large-capacity magazines is likely constitutional and can remain in place for now, a divided D.C. Circuit said Tuesday.

D.C. gun owners wishing to possess magazines holding more than 10 rounds didn’t persuade the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the District’s prohibition on such magazines falls short of US Supreme Court standards.

The majority agreed with the District that historical restrictions on particularly dangerous weapons and weapons capable of unprecedented lethality constitute a relevantly similar tradition, the per curiam majority opinion said.

“Those laws are commensurate with the District’s justification of its magazine cap to counter the growing use of [ELCMs] to facilitate crime and, specifically, to perpetrate mass shootings,” the majority wrote.

The US Supreme Court’s 2022 N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen decision and June 21 ruling in United States v. Rahimi hold that a modern-day gun restrictions must comport with historical practice.

Because the gun owners failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits in their Second Amendment challenge to the D.C. law, the appeals court affirmed the lower court’s denial of a preliminary injunction, the opinion said.

Judges Patricia A. Millett and Douglas H. Ginsburg joined the majority opinion.

Judge Justin R. Walker, dissenting, said the law is unconstitutional under high court precedents because the magazines at issue are lawfully and widely used. “There is no history and tradition of banning arms in common use for lawful purposes,” Walker wrote.

Tuesday’s majority ruling is in line with other post-Bruen circuit court decisions on the question. A Rhode Island law prohibiting possession of large capacity magazines stayed in place under a First Circuit decision earlier this year.

Illinois and several municipalities can continue to enforce their bans on high-capacity magazines, the Seventh Circuit said last year. In July, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to that decision.

Bergstrom Attorneys and others represent the gun owners.

Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg. Everytown filed an amicus brief in the case.

The case is Hanson v. DC, D.C. Cir., No. 23-07061, 10/29/24.