Benjamin v. Bailey

What the court held

Gun owners and a manufacturer challenged Connecticut's statutes banning the sale, transfer, and possession of listed assault weapons under the state constitutional right to bear arms, equal protection, the bill of attainder clause, and vagueness doctrine. The Connecticut Supreme Court held the ban is a permissible exercise of the police power that does not infringe Article First, Section 15, because ample other firearms remain available for self-defense, and rejected the equal protection and bill of attainder claims. It also reversed the trial court's decision to excise the word "type" from the statutory list, holding the enumeration is not facially vague, and directed judgment for the state.

Summarized from the court's opinion.

What this case is about

Connecticut assault weapons ban under the state constitutional right to bear arms

GunMapUSA summary of the issue, not a quotation from the court.

Key Dates

• 1995-07-25 — Decided

Sources

• CourtListener — retrieved 2026-08-08