BALTIMORE _ A federal appeals court has upheld the assault rifle ban Maryland lawmakers passed in 2013, concluding that the powerful military-style guns outlawed by the measure are not entitled to protection under the Second Amendment.
The ruling, issued by the entire 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., reverses a decision by a smaller panel of judges from the court last year that called the law's constitutionality into question.
The bill was steered through the Maryland Senate by then-Sen. Brian E. Frosh in the wake of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Since elected as the state's attorney general, he has defended the law in court.
The law, which also outlawed magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds, was among several that have tested how courts would consider new gun restrictions in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that found at least some firearms were constitutionally protected.
