Today we got a bad judgment. Today is the day to regroup and and figure out how and what to do next. The fight for the second amendment will continue until we are dead and gone.

Here is my initial breakdown on today's news.

Today the Federal District Court of New Jersey issued a final merits based ruling in our AWB and standard capacity magazine cases.
There is a great deal of confusion on what the holding means and I want to clarify as much as I can.

First, at a personal level in terms of what to do, assume nothing has been struck down.  Not to minimize the actual holding itself, no matter how this case was decided, it was going to be appealed and that is certainly going to happen.  

Second, was this a win?  Thats the question everyone is asking.  The answer is yes, unequivocally.

This was a big win for three separate reasons and I am going to address the biggest portion of that first.

1. We have a final merits based decision.  Looking at the procedural posture of similar AWB cases around the country, our case is one of the most advanced.  Clarence Thomas was begging for a final, merits based decision to grant cert on in his dissent to the denial of cert on the Illinois AWB cases.  We could be on a final decision with the 3rd circuit in a year.  And that means it could be our case that reaches the Supreme Court first.  Mark Cheeseman has been leading this grassroots fight for decades now.  It would be the most fitting outcome possible for Cheeseman to be the name of the title case that ends assault weapon bans nationwide, forever.  Heller, McDonald, Bruen, Cheeseman.  No one in this whole country deserves that more than Mark.

2. As for the holding itself, the District Court found in its opinion that AR-15's as a class of firearms are in common use and protected under the 2nd Amendment.  On the AWB question, the Court got the main holding and the analysis right.  Sheridan tried to do everything possible to narrow down his order to make it as limited as possible, but as I said, it doesn't matter.  We are going up on appeal with the main arguments settled in our favor and we were going to be appealing this either way.  That is the important takeaway.  

3. On the mag ban question, the court made two massive concessions: the Court ruled that magazines are arms; and, the Court ruled that large capacity magazines are in common use.  The Court then completely gets the rest of the Bruen analysis wrong.  The Court invented its own test because it viewed magazines limitations as a restriction on an arm and not an outright ban, it then used mid to late 1800's analogies to support its conclusion.  The Court didn't rule in our favor, but it conceded the important points and then went into the most thinly veiled example of interest-balancing I have ever seen (in complete contradiction to Heller and Bruen).  Why do I think that is a win?  Because we go to the 3rd Circuit not debating about whether magazines are arms or whether "LCM's" (standard capacity magazines) are in common use.  We have those two points in our pocket.  The 3rd Circuit has to simply agree with the lower court on the key issues and simply apply the law correctly.

Let me reiterate.  We got a final decision much sooner than we thought which means we go to the 3rd circuit sooner than we thought and then on to the Supreme Court.  This issue will only be fully settled when that happens.  And that final decision at SCOTUS could be titled "Cheeseman."

I am proud to know Mark, proud to be part of this fight and we should view this case as the victory that it is.  Whether Sheridan likes it or not, we are on a path to total victory on this issue and this district court level case was only ever going to be a step along that way.