RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gun-rights advocates have urged a federal appeals court to overturn key provisions of Maryland's sweeping gun-control law.

Attorney John Sweeney represents opponents of the law's ban on 45 assault weapons and its limit on gun magazines to 10 rounds. During a 50-minute hearing Wednesday in Richmond, he told a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Second Amendment prohibits the state from banning firearms that people commonly keep in their homes for self-defense.

Matthew Fader of the Maryland attorney general's office argued that the banned weapons aren't necessary for self-defense.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake upheld the law last year.

The appeals court typically takes several weeks to issue a ruling.