New Jersey’s rifle and magazine ban: struck down, paused, now at the Supreme Court’s door

The ruling

On July 17, 2026, the en banc Third Circuit ruled 10–5 in Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General that New Jersey’s ban on semi-automatic “assault firearms” and its limit of 10 rounds per magazine violate the Second Amendment. Judge Arianna J. Freeman wrote for the majority; Judge Patty Shwartz wrote the principal dissent.

It was the first time a full federal appeals court struck down a state ban of this kind. A district judge had earlier invalidated the rifle ban only as it applied to the Colt AR-15. The en banc court extended the holding to the class of semi-automatic rifles the law covers and separately invalidated the magazine limit.

The reasoning and the dissent

Applying Bruen, the majority found that AR-15-style rifles and standard-capacity magazines are in common use for lawful purposes, and that the historical laws New Jersey offered came too late or never banned an entire class of commonly used arms. The dissent argued that AR-15s fall outside the Second Amendment’s protection and that states may prohibit them.

Why nothing has changed yet

New Jersey asked the court to pause its decision, and on August 4 the Third Circuit granted a stay before the ruling took effect. Both bans therefore remain enforced. On October 1, the state filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the case, Davenport v. Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs (No. 26-452). Governor Mikie Sherrill and Attorney General Jennifer Davenport had criticized the July ruling.

Afterlight analysis

The petition arrives while the Court is preparing to hear the AR-15 cases from Cook County and Connecticut on December 2. The most likely path is that the justices hold New Jersey’s petition until they decide those cases, then act on it or send it back for reconsideration. That would keep New Jersey’s laws in force into 2027. Gun owners in the state should not treat the July ruling as permission to buy or possess the banned rifles or magazines.