This is at the first circuit for preliminary injunction.
Preliminary injunctions are considered extreme intervention therefore a heavy lift to achieve.
And the 1st is looking to reaffirm a previous circuit decision even though Cargill is dispositive of the courts assertion. They liken ARs to an M-16 because an AR can be bump fired even though SCOTUS tosses that argument because all semiautomatics have the capacity to be bump fires.
The court is also pushing the narrative that arms must actually be used, fired, in self defense to be considered in common use. However even a layman's reading of the phrase "in common use for lawful purposes, like self defense" shows that any lawful use (hunting, target, competition, collecting,etc) is part of the common use test.
The first will deny the injunction either by finding that ARs are not protected so the appellant is not likely to succeed, or that while they will succeed they have not met the extraordinary bar to show irreparable harm sufficient for a preliminary injunction.
Snope is already ripe for SCOTUS review so it will be accepted and decided or rejected long before Capen reaches decision, other than loss by summary judgment.
