The District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled that a Washington, D.C. ban on gun magazines containing more than 10 bullets is unconstitutional.
This decision reversed Tyree Benson’s criminal conviction. Benson was arrested in 2022 for possessing an unregistered 9-millimeter handgun which could contain 30 bullets.
Judge Joshua Deahl wrote in his ruling that “we are not blind to the blight of gun violence in this country and the horrors it visits on our citizenry,” but noted that large-capacity magazines “are arms in common and ubiquitous use” and there is no “history or tradition” of banning them.
The lone dissenter on the three-judge panel, Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby said Benson did not prove his gun was in “common use for lawful purposes.”
