New Jersey’s political class just bought itself more time to enforce gun restrictions that a federal appeals court ruled violate the Second Amendment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday stayed its own July 17 ruling striking down New Jersey’s ban on commonly owned semiautomatic rifles and its prohibition on magazines holding more than 10 rounds. The laws will remain in effect while the state asks the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.
The order is a procedural pause, not a victory for New Jersey on the merits. The Third Circuit has not withdrawn its decision or declared the bans constitutional. It has temporarily stopped that ruling from taking effect while the next stage of the legal battle plays out.
In its landmark 10–5 en banc decision last month, the Third Circuit held that New Jersey’s sweeping ban on semiautomatic rifles, including the AR-15 platform, violates the Second Amendment.
The court also struck down the state’s 10-round magazine limit, concluding that magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds are protected “Arms” and that the state failed to identify a sufficient historical tradition supporting its restrictions.
That decision marked the first time a federal appeals court invalidated a state so-called “assault weapons” ban on Second Amendment grounds.
As The Gateway Pundit reported on July 17, the full Third Circuit expanded a narrower 2024 district-court ruling that had applied only to the Colt AR-15. The appeals court extended constitutional protection to the broader class of semiautomatic rifles and knocked out the magazine restriction as well.
The latest stay means New Jersey residents cannot yet rely on that historic ruling to purchase or possess firearms and magazines still prohibited under state law. Gun owners and dealers remain bound by the existing restrictions unless and until the stay is lifted.
New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport celebrated the pause and said the state will continue defending what officials call “common-sense” gun laws. But the state’s preferred label does not answer the constitutional question the Third Circuit already decided: whether government may ban arms commonly possessed by law-abiding Americans when it cannot point to a comparable historical restriction.
The state now wants the Supreme Court to rescue a law that failed under the very history-and-tradition test the justices announced in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
The timing is especially significant. The Supreme Court has already agreed to hear challenges involving similar bans in Cook County, Illinois, and Connecticut.
New Jersey’s petition could be held while the justices decide those cases, or the Court could take up the Garden State dispute directly.
Either way, the constitutional showdown over America’s most popular rifles is heading toward the nation’s highest court.
This fight has been building for years. The Gateway Pundit previously reported in August 2024 that U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan found New Jersey’s Colt AR-15 ban unconstitutional while leaving the magazine limit in place. The Third Circuit later went much further, ruling for gun-rights plaintiffs on both semiautomatic rifles and magazines.
For now, however, New Jersey’s gun owners are being forced to wait while state officials take one more shot at preserving restrictions a federal appeals court found incompatible with the Bill of Rights.
The post New Jersey Gun Grabbers Get Temporary Win: Third Circuit Pauses Landmark Ruling Striking Down AR-15 and Magazine Bans While State Begs Supreme Court for Help appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
