A local law in the District of Columbia banning gun magazines that contain more than 10 bullets was struck down as unconstitutional by a three-judge panel on Thursday. The 54-page ruling from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest local appeals court for the U.S. capital, reversed the criminal conviction of Tyree Benson, who was arrested in 2022 for possessing an unregistered 9-millimeter handgun with a magazine that could contain 30 bullets. The District of Columbia could appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, or ask that a larger panel from the local appeals court reconsider it.
The ruling does not impact the enforcement of gun laws elsewhere. In an earlier case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, a federal appeals court, reached the opposite conclusion, upholding the constitutionality of the same magazine ban. It was not immediately clear how the two rulings would interact.
“We are not blind to the blight of gun violence in this country and the horrors it visits on our citizenry,” wrote Judge Joshua Deahl, an appointee of President Donald Trump, for the two-judge majority on the split three-judge panel. But, he continued, his hands were tied by Supreme Court precedent, the fact that large-capacity magazines “are arms in common and ubiquitous use,” as well as the lack of “history or tradition” of any blanket prohibition on them.
Using historical tradition as the standard for assessing firearm regulations is relatively new, stemming from the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
In a dissent from Thursday’s ruling, Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the majority had misapplied the new test because Mr. Benson had failed to establish that his weapon was in “common use for lawful purposes.” Magazines with 30 rounds or more, she wrote, ”are instead dangerous and unusual.”
On social media, supporters of more expansive gun rights hailed the ruling and credited Mr. Trump’s Justice Department for supporting the reversal of Mr. Tyree’s conviction. Under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Justice Department had been making the opposite argument, contending that the district’s high-capacity magazine ban was legal and should be upheld. The shift was part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to loosen local gun laws in the district, which are among the strictest in the country. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, had already instructed federal prosecutors not to enforce the city’s ban.
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