Rhode Island Gun Owners and Sellers Urge Judge to Strike Down Magazine Ban

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Rhode Island’s ban on the sale and possession of “large capacity” magazines are asking a judge to strike down the law without a full trial on the merits. 

The case, known as Ocean State Tactical v. Nerohna, has already been up to the Supreme Court once, after U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. declined to grant a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the law. The First Circuit upheld that ruling, and the Supreme Court declined to grant cert to the case after repeatedly discussing it in conference, along with a challenge to Maryland’s ban on so-called assault weapons that they also turned away. 

Now the plaintiffs in Ocean State Tactical have filed a motion for summary judgment in their favor, arguing that “subsequent decisions from the Supreme Court confirm that HB6614 violates the Second Amendment.”

The biggest problem the plaintiffs face is that the First Circuit has already ruled in another case out of Massachusetts that bans on “large capacity” magazines are constitutional, and the appellate court views that earlier decision as controlling on the judge in Ocean State Tactical.

While it would be great if McConnell decided to buck First Circuit precedent, I don’t think that’s gonna happen given his refusal to grant a preliminary injunction. 

McConnell found that Big Bear Hunting & Fishing Supply; several Rhode Island residents – Mary Brimer, James Grundy and Jonathan Hirons; and, a Newport homeowner, Jeffrey Goyette, had not shown that they would suffer irreparable harm if the law took effect, and that its enforcement was in the public’s interest.

McConnell referenced mass shootings that have plagued the country in his ruling.

“Consistent with its obligation to protect public safety, but consonant with its fealty to the Constitution, the Rhode Island General Assembly has responded with, among other firearms regulations, the [large capacity magazine] ban. It is inevitable that Rhode Island will one day be the scene of a mass shooting. The LCM Ban is a small but measured attempt to mitigate the potential loss of life by regulating an instrument associated with mass slaughter,” the judge wrote.

According to the First Circuit, magazine bans are the result of “unprecedented societal concerns” about mass shootings that did not exist at the time of the Founding, so there’s no need for states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island to find historical analogues. The appellate court went on to declare that magazine bans don’t impose a significant burden on self-defense, which makes them presumptively constitutional as well. 

I think the First Circuit got its history and conclusions wrong, but it’s ultimately going to be up to the Supreme Court to correct its error. The sooner Ocean State Tactical gets back before SCOTUS the better, and that seems to be what this request for summary judgment is aiming for. By not asking for a trial on the merits, the plaintiffs can hopefully get a verdict from McConnell relatively quickly, allowing them to appeal once more to the First Circuit (where a loss is basically a foregone conclusion) and then on to the Supreme Court. 

By the time Ocean State gets back to SCOTUS, the justices will probably have decided whether bans on so-called assault weapons are constitutional, and may even have granted cert to another magazine ban case like Duncan v. Bonta. Another possibility is that the Court will vacate, grant, and remand Duncan and Gator’s Custom Guns v. Washington (another magazine ban lawsuit) back to the lower courts for a do-over in light of what the justices have to say in Viramontes (the “assault weapon” ban lawsuit). 

In any case, there’s a good chance that Viramontes will have some guidance for lower courts about the constitutionality of magazine bans. I don’t know where Ocean State Tactical v. Nerohna will be when that decision is handed down next year, but I believe that the Court’s conclusions will be helpful to the plaintiffs taking on Rhode Island’s magazine ban.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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