The state was within its rights to ban the weapons, Young wrote in the ruling.
U. S. District Judge William Young on Friday dismissed a lawsuit challenging Massachusetts’ ban on assault weapons.
In his ruling, Young wrote that because military-style firearms and large-capacity magazines are “designed and intended to be particularly suitable for combat rather than sporting applications,” they do not fall under the “scope of the personal right to ‘bear Arms’ under the Second Amendment.”
Therefore, the state was within its rights to ban the weapons, he wrote.
AR-15s, the same type of gun used to carry out the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in February, are also not protected under the Second Amendment, according to the ruling.
“The AR-15 and the M-16 were designed and manufactured simultaneously for the military and share very similar features and functions,” the judge wrote. “Therefore, because the undisputed facts convincingly demonstrate that AR-15s and LCMs are most useful in military service, they are beyond the scope of the Second Amendment.”
Since the shooting in Parkland, gun control has been pushed to the forefront of the national conversation, with high school students staging a nationwide school walkout and federal lawmakers discussing possible measures to increase school safety.
President Donald Trump has also taken measures to end gun violence, including attempts to ban bump stock devices and potential training for teachers to be armed in schools.
The conversation surrounding gun violence reached a new peak this week following a shooting at YouTube headquarters in California.
Tech leaders like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey urged the nation to stop “thinking and praying” after shootings and to instead “evolve our policies,” sharing a link to the March for Our Lives website.
“We can’t keep being reactive to this, thinking and praying it won’t happen again at our schools, jobs, or our community spots. It’s beyond time to evolve our policies,” Dorsey wrote on Twitter.
Kelcey Caulder is a News Fellow at IJR. Previously, she worked with the web team at the Los Angeles Times and led the Student Press Law Center’s campa… more
