Federal appeals court upholds New York ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, rules

But down in the weeds, the unanimous decision by a panel of three Democratic appointees nevertheless points to potential trouble for similar laws should they ever be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Now that the Court has ruled, it is time for everyone involved in the critical debate about how to keep weapons out of the hands of unsafe and unstable people to come together to work toward sensible solutions that will keep our communities safe", he said. But Heller offered minimal guidance over what limitations are constitutional.

Jake Palmateer, an organizer for NY2A, a gun-rights group, called the decision "disappointing" but "expected".

"Connecticut has struck the right constitutional balance between access to firearms and public safety". "Today's decision acknowledges our state government's obligation to take every sensible step toward reducing gun violence".

The 2nd Circuit did reverse Skretny on one provision, ruling that the SAFE Act's misspelled reference to banned weapons with a barrel that could accommodate a "muzzle break" - a misspelling of the anti-recoil "brake" device - was not enough to invalidate the plain intent of the language.

Scott Wilson is president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, which represents almost 20,000 gun owners in the state. Gun rights advocates, though, don't agree.

"We were expecting this decision", said Patrick Morse, founder of North Country Friends of the Second Amendment.

The Connecticut law expanded the state's background checks for purchasers of guns and ammunition.

Under that new test, a weapon was banned if it contained military-style features, including a telescoping stock, a conspicuously protruding pistol grip, a thumbhole stock, a bayonet mount, a flash suppressor, a barrel shroud, and a grenade launch.

The gun industry began promoting black guns in the 1990s when they realized that hunting and traditional sporting use of guns was dying out. "Having said that, sheriff's deputies will continue to honor their oaths and enforce New York's laws the way they are written and passed".

On this question, the judges again sided with the gun owners. The laws basically toughened the earlier assault weapons bans, provoking immediate outcries from the pro-gun gang who challenged the laws based on their inalienable 2nd-Amendment rights.

The plaintiffs in the original cases think those laws unduly burden their Second Amendment rights. Instead it assumed, without so holding, that such weapons were in fact protected by the Second Amendment. That included bans on certain semiautomatic assault rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines.

"Not so", they concluded.

Connecticut's stricter gun laws potentially could have more than a "minimal impact" on violent crime. He fired 154 rounds in less than five minutes.