D.C. Court of Appeals strikes down ban on high-capacity gun magazines

A rare alliance between the Trump administration and District officials pushed Washington’s highest local court to take another look at one of the city’s most sweeping gun restrictions. Both sides, usually locked in conflict over D.C.’s autonomy and strict firearms rules, urged rehearing after a panel threw out the District’s ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

The fight centers on Tyree Benson v. United States, where a three-judge panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled on March 5 that the magazine ban violated the Second Amendment. The panel reversed Tyree Benson’s conviction under the ban and also vacated related convictions for carrying a pistol without a license, possessing an unregistered firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition. In its opinion, the panel said the magazines are “arms in common and ubiquitous use” and noted that they come standard with many popular firearms sold in the United States.

The District moved quickly. On March 6, it filed an emergency motion asking the court to suspend the opinion’s precedential effect while rehearing was considered. District lawyers warned of “uncertainty and chaos” and said the decision could have a “potentially massive” blast radius for other gun prosecutions. The U.S. Department of Justice, through U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, also backed rehearing even though it said it was no longer defending the magazine ban itself. Federal lawyers argued that the panel’s remedial ruling could jeopardize about 300 pending prosecutions for carrying a pistol without a license.

The District also said the March opinion conflicted with Hanson v. District of Columbia, a 2024 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that had upheld the same statute against a Second Amendment challenge. It argued that the panel decision may have been the only appellate ruling in the country to strike down a large-capacity-magazine ban on its face. That made the case more than a local dispute over one weapons law: it became a test of how far courts will let local governments go after the Supreme Court’s recent Second Amendment decisions.

On April 22, the D.C. Court of Appeals granted rehearing en banc and vacated the March 5 opinion. The result is immediate and significant: the magazine ban is back in force for now, and the full court will decide whether the District can keep one of its signature gun restrictions alive in a legal landscape that has shifted sharply toward gun rights.