## Facts

- Vermont enacted 13 V.S.A. § 4021 (2018), generally prohibiting possession of “large-capacity ammunition feeding devices,” defined as magazines holding more than ten rounds for long guns or more than fifteen rounds for handguns, with an exemption for magazines lawfully possessed before April 11, 2018.
- Max Misch was charged with unlawfully possessing two thirty-round rifle magazines.
- The State alleged Misch purchased the magazines in New Hampshire and brought them into Vermont, violating § 4021.
- The law was adopted as part of a gun-control package aimed at reducing deaths and injuries in mass shootings.

## Issues

1. Whether Chapter I, Article 16 of the Vermont Constitution protects an individual right to bear arms for self-defense outside actual or potential militia service.
2. If Article 16 protects such a right, whether 13 V.S.A. § 4021’s large-capacity magazine ban is unconstitutional on its face.

## Decision

- The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of Misch’s motion to dismiss.
- The court held Article 16 protects an individual right to bear arms for self-defense, but the right is limited and subject to reasonable regulation.
- The court held § 4021 is a reasonable regulation that advances public safety without destroying the core self-defense right, and is facially constitutional.

## Legal Principles

- Article 16 secures an individual right to bear arms for self-defense, but that right is not unlimited and may be regulated to protect public safety.
- Challenges to firearms regulations under Article 16 are evaluated using a “reasonable regulation” standard, not strict or intermediate scrutiny.
- A regulation is reasonable if it (1) serves a legitimate public-safety purpose and (2) meaningfully furthers that purpose without destroying the core of the right to bear arms for self-defense.
- A large-capacity magazine restriction may satisfy Article 16 where it targets magazine capacity (not firearm ownership generally), leaves lawful access to commonly used arms and magazines for self-defense, and reasonably relates to reducing mass-shooting casualties.

## Conclusion

The Vermont Supreme Court recognized an individual self-defense component in Article 16 while applying a “reasonable regulation” test, and it upheld Vermont’s large-capacity magazine ban as a facially valid public-safety measure that leaves the core self-defense right intact.


State v. Misch, 256 A.3d 519 (Vt. 2021)