Why a Third Circuit Upheld The Federal Machine Gun Ban
Easton Martin | September 2, 2026
A federal appeals court has upheld the federal prohibition on machine gun possession after determining that fully automatic firearms are not protected by the Second Amendment under current Supreme Court precedent.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued its decision Tuesday in United States v. Joseph Berger, affirming the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who possessed thirteen fully automatic firearms along with numerous silencers and conversion components.
Berger challenged the federal machine gun prohibition as applied to his circumstances after federal agents searched his Bethlehem residence. Investigators discovered more than sixty firearms inside the home, including thirteen fully automatic weapons that were primarily AK-style firearms. Authorities also found components capable of converting semiautomatic firearms into machine guns.
Writing for the majority, Judge Stephanos Bibas concluded that machine guns fall outside the Second Amendment’s protected category because they are not commonly possessed for lawful purposes. The ruling relied heavily upon the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
The court determined that machine guns qualify as dangerous and unusual weapons under the framework established by those decisions. Judges also pointed toward historical regulation of automatic firearms during the twentieth century, noting that numerous states restricted machine guns between 1925 and 1934.
The decision arrives after the Third Circuit recently took a significantly different approach toward New Jersey’s restrictions on semiautomatic rifles and large-capacity magazines. An en banc panel struck down those restrictions in July after concluding that they violated the Second Amendment.
