Heather Darling
Heather is a Lawyer from Morris County
A Third Circuit Panel split decision upheld a statute banning gun magazines over 10 rounds. In a 2 to 1 decision, along the same lines as pre-bench political party contributions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected a challenge by the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, an NRA affiliated organization, to the ban of ‘large-capacity’ gun magazines holding over 10 rounds.
The statute arose following a rise in mass shooting incidents in the United States, although little to no attention has been given to the enactment of mental health legislation designed to treat the cause, not the symptoms.
Judges Joseph Greenaway Jr. and Patty Shwartz, both having pre-bench ties to Democrats, decided in favor of upholding the ban. Judge Setphanos Bibas, with pre-bench ties to Republicans, wrote a dissenting opinion seeking to enjoin the ban until the state could show that the ban could actually prevent harm by mass shooters rather than simply being a knee-jerk reaction without evidence of actual effectiveness.
Greenaway and Shwartz found the ban ‘reasonably fits’ the State’s interest in public safety without causing under burden on the Second Amendment rights of citizens. Shwartz, writing the opinion of the majority, noted an increase in mass shootings from 2006 to 2015 as supporting evidence for the ban but did not cite statistics bearing on mental health, addiction, social or economic pressures or other factors which may trigger a mass shooter to act.
U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan, also with pre-bench ties to Democrats, initially refused to enjoin the large-capacity magazine ban. Judge Sheridan also cited to evidence from a mass shooting at an all-night arts festival in Trenton in June 2018 relating to the opportunity created when the shooter has to stop and reload but nothing about the mental state or other issues of mass shooters.
Without methods and programs to treat underlying issues of those who commit acts of mass violence, this ban seems to be more along a party line concept of decreasing or eliminating gun ownership among private individuals than preventing mass injury as the decision not only fails to address underlying issues but also fails to address the reality that other mass violence has occurred through the use of bombs, motor vehicles and other means.
A Third Citcuit Panel split decision upheld a statute banning gun magazines over 10 rounds. In a 2 to 1 decision, along the same lines as pre-bench political party contributions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected a challenge by the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, an NRA affiliated organization, to the ban of ‘large-capacity’ gun magazines holding over 10 rounds.
The statute arose following a rise in mass shooting incidents in the United States, although little to no attention has been given to the enactment of mental health legislation designed to treat the cause, not the symptoms.
Judges Joseph Greenaway Jr. and Patty Shwartz, both having pre-bench ties to Democrats, decided in favor of upholding the ban. Judge Setphanos Bibas, with pre-bench ties to Republicans, wrote a dissenting opinion seeking to enjoin the ban until the state could show that the ban could actually prevent harm by mass shooters rather than simply being a knee-jerk reaction without evidence of actual effectiveness.
Greenaway and Shwartz found the ban ‘reasonably fits’ the State’s interest in public safety without causing under burden on the Second Amendment rights of citizens. Shwartz, writing the opinion of the majority, noted an increase in mass shootings from 2006 to 2015 as supporting evidence for the ban but did not cite statistics bearing on mental health, addiction, social or economic pressures or other factors which may trigger a mass shooter to act.
U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan, also with pre-bench ties to Democrats, initially refused to enjoin the large-capacity magazine ban. Judge Sheridan also cited to evidence from a mass shooting at an all-night arts festival in Trenton in June 2018 relating to the opportunity created when the shooter has to stop and reload but nothing about the mental state or other issues of mass shooters.
Without methods and programs to treat underlying issues of those who commit acts of mass violence, this ban seems to be more along a party line concept of decreasing or eliminating gun ownership among private individuals than preventing mass injury as the decision not only fails to address underlying issues but also fails to address the reality that other mass violence has occurred through the use of bombs, motor vehicles and other means.
