Assault weapons do not fall under Second Amendment protection, court rules

A federal appeals court in Virginia has upheld a Maryland law that bans 45 kinds of assault weapons and limits a gun magazine to 10 rounds.

The ruling, according to a story from The Associated Press, said the guns could be banned under Maryland law because those types of guns are not protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

The Second Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

"Put simply, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war," Judge Robert King of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote for the court. The ruling noted that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller excluded such protection under the Second Amendment.