Ocean State Tactical, LLC, et al. v. State of Rhode Island

Overview

(U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, March 7, 2024): The First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Second Amendment challenge to a Rhode Island law banning the sale of large-capacity magazines (LCM). The Court first assumed without deciding that LCMs are “arms” covered by the Second Amendment. The Court then applied the Bruen test of whether the LCM ban is “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Finding that there could not be a historical tradition of regulating LCMs because they are relatively modern, the Court looked for an historical analogue, a relevantly similar historical regulation to the LCM ban. The court found the history of regulating arms that are not commonly used in self-defense and present a threat to public safety, like sawed-off shotguns, is an analogue for the LCM ban because LCMs are similarly rarely used in self-defense and present a risk to public safety. With the ban passing the historical analogue test, the Court examined the impact of the ban, concluding that the LCM ban does not impose a significant burden on the right to armed self-defense because it does not prevent gun owners from owning other forms of weaponry or ammunition for self-defense. As a result, the ban was upheld. Read the full decision here.

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