Last year, Maryland passed an assault weapons ban.
Maryland’s law, passed five months after the mass shooting in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., made the possession or sale of an assault weapon or a magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition a misdemeanor in Maryland.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
You would think that any rational supporter of gun rights would draw the line at assault weapons. However, gun rights advocates challenged the law, arguing that assault weapons are protected. Judge Blake rejected this argument, noting:
Upon review of all the parties’ evidence, the court seriously doubts that the banned assault long guns are commonly possessed for lawful purposes, particularly self-defense in the home, which is at the core of the Second Amendment right,” U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake wrote. . . .
“As for their claims that assault weapons are well-suited for self-defense, the plaintiffs proffer no evidence beyond their desire to possess assault weapons for self-defense in the home that they are in fact commonly used, or possessed, for that purpose,” she wrote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
By making this argument in opposition to the assault weapons ban, it appears to me that the arguments of the gun rights advocates are pure creative thinking on their part, and are divorced from reality. The Washington Post noted:
Law enforcement officers who testified in the case could not identify a single time that a Maryland resident used an assault weapon for self-defense.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
This decision is not the end of the challenge to the Maryland assault weapons ban.
Today on its Facebook page Maryland Shall Issue posted, " we are disappointed to report that the District Court of Maryland has found the AWB (assault weapons ban) provision of SB 281 constitutional. We will, of course, be appealing the decision."
http://www.wbal.com/...
Stay tuned. I have a feeling this one will ultimately be headed to the Supreme Court.