Judge Rules Against California’s High Capacity Magazines Ban
A federal judge applies common sense against California’s ban on Magazines that could hold more than 10 rounds. California passed a law back in 2000 that prohibited people from owning these magazines. Those who previously owned these magazines were allowed to continue owning them. However, in 2016, both the California Legislature and California’s voters voted to remove that exception.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez placed a hold on that ban pending his review. He ultimately decided that it was unconstitutional to ban such magazines. He mentioned a situation where a woman was able to fend off her attackers with a “high-capacity magazine”.
From USA Today:
Benitez ruled that magazines holding more than 10 rounds are “arms” under the U.S. Constitution, and that the California law “burdens the core of the Second Amendment by criminalizing the acquisition and possession of these magazines that are commonly held by law-abiding citizens for defense of self, home, and state.”
Benitez described three home invasions, two of which ended with the female victims running out of bullets.
In the third case, the pajama-clad woman with a high-capacity magazine took on three armed intruders, firing at them while simultaneously calling for help on her phone.
“She had no place to carry an extra magazine and no way to reload because her left hand held the phone with which she was still trying to call 911,” the judge wrote, saying she killed one attacker while two escaped.
Of course, the usual suspects are not happy. More from USA Today:
In a statement, Newsom criticized the judge’s ruling.
“This District Court Judge’s failure to uphold a ban on high-capacity magazines is indefensible, dangerous for our communities and contradicts well-established case law,” the governor said. “I strongly disagree with the court’s assessment that ‘the problem of mass shootings is very small.’ Our commitment to public safety and defending common sense gun safety laws remains steadfast.”
You can read more details in this USA Today link.
Category: Politics
Having escaped Cali for New Hampshire in 2012 I was floored to read this. I never saw it coming. This is the state where a man was arrested for possession of an assault rifle, went to court, had it determined he didn’t have an assault rifle, challenge the ban under “if the authorities don’t event know what an assault rifle is how can private citizen” logic, only to see it dismissed as “well that was a one off case” and three months later he’s arrested for the same thing with the same rifle….
So to see a ruling like this come out of California leaves me gobsmacked.
Of course the 9th will overturn it and the SCOTUS will find some reason not to hear it. So there is that.
The federal judge’s decision in CA surprises me too. It gives me a little hope that we might see change here in the PDR of MA. There is a magazine capacity restriction of 10 rounds in Massachusetts. Magazines that hold more than 10 rounds are grandfathered in, as long as they were owned before 09/13/1994, and the owner has a License To Carry-A (authorizes concealed carry of handguns; also allows ownership and possession of rifles and shotguns).
Renewed my LTC-A last fall and will continue to support S&W in Springfield, MA.
Mass has rejected my CCW request for two years running now.
Makes me sad.
Unfortunately, MA is a “may issue” state and does not recognize any other state’s license to carry.
Universal Reciprocity is the best way forward for America.
Not naming names, but I can say that there’s a fair number of Americans here in California who practice Irish Democracy with regard to the mag ban and some other retarded infringements of Constitutional rights.
The issue with that is you had to be careful. You never knew who was going to drop a dime on you. Friends, strangers, or just some rando who’s reporting the gunfire.
It was just no way for me to live. And not just about guns, but socially, and economically. I couldn’t stay and try and fight the good fight. Glad you can though!
For the time being, they are generally left in the closet/attic/wherever for the proverbial rainy day, or kept under the seat of the truck for trips to ranges in Arizona or Nevada. Far from ideal, but better than rolling over for the fascists.
It’s kind of like the detachable-mag AR ban. Lots of people had CA-compliant bullet-button ARs, but when even that got banned, many just decided they’d had enough, said “Fuck you, Moonbeam!” and put GI mag release buttons back on.
A fellow had BB2.0 patented before they could finish the ban on the 1.0 version.
A big fat middle finger to the banners.
If you bring one back into Commiefornia and get caught with it, it’s a felony. That law isn’t part of the
Judge’s ruling. It has been in effect for over fifteen years, IIRC. I suppose you might skate if you could prove you owned the mag before you took it out of state.
You cite one more reason why I also left CA for NH.
Were it not for the Massholes and other flatlanders here, this state would be solidly red.
I drove from CA to NH, and the first thing I did once I hit the NV border was to stop, get out my AR and throw my bullet button into the scrub surrounding the rest area.
I strongly suspect they imported a bunch of Massholes and flatlanders up here for the last election. I’m all about freedom, but the whole same day registration and voting thing…I’ve seen enough shady stuff with that, that I do question my commitment to letting people live however they want.
Interesting and good to hear. So let’s see. The judge’s name is Benitez, so I’ll assume Hispanic. He’s got that going for him making it harder for the left to attack him personally. He also obviously knows this is going to be appealed to the 9th circus, which is why he’s invoking the feels with examples involving female victims.
It’ll take some doing, but the 9th circuit will overrule this, I’m sure. Then off to SCOTUS, somewhere around 2022.
Bio says he was born in Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_T._Benitez
This^^^^
9th circus will likely overturn it, maybe by a 2-1 decision at best. They will deny an en banc review and it will go to SCOTUS where, unless Trump gets another Justice seated, we will find out just how big of a squish Roberts is.
ringmaster Trump is correcting the list-to-port of the 9th.
Article posted below.
I don’t know about that. I read the ruling and it is pretty hard to deny as Hizhonor uses the left’s own scientists against it in the stats department. Also, it is written in a way that opens a lot of doors to overturn the NFA and a lot of the ATF’s restrictions as well. I’m not sure the CA-AG wants to play that game…
Well this ought to get interesting before it’s over.
Wonder how many citizens have died from a “high capacity” magazine v drug overdoses, car accidents, gang violence ect? We now know of at least one that lived because she had a “high capacity” magazine. To use their own words…”if it saves just one life…”
This is interesting, indeed.
I’m sure that a statistical comparison of the number of people killed by high capacity magazines versus the number of people killed by high-velocity automobiles or high tonnage cargo trucks, or for that matter, high calorie diets, would also prove interesting, IF inconvenient.
Hi PH2
I pray for my country.
Randy
Far more people are killed by cigarette smoking than high capacity magazines, we can always count on politicians to be complete and total idiots!
What a freaking moron. First, the AR he is holding is already illegal to own in any state without a special federal firearms license from the BATF because it qualifies as a short barreled rifle (SBR). Second, with the short barrel and the collapsing stock, it appears shorter than thirty inches, which already makes it illegal to own under Cali laws in existence for over 18 years.
Unfortunately, now the state will go crying to the 9th Circus. They are, of course, the Appeals Court that is most frequently overruled by SCOTUS, but that takes an inordinate amount of time. Given how often they rule in favor of the California SSR, and the sketchy justifications they claim for those decisions, I often wonder what an audit of the 9th’s judges would reveal that they and California democrats would rather keep hidden. Just another puddle of the swamp to be drained.
Be of good cheer. See below.
When NYC had the magazine 10rd only law, we could only load 10 rds into our S&W 4046 mags and the suits said that we could be in mucho trouble if we were involved in a situation where we had to use our weapons and it was found out that 2 extra rounds were loaded into the mags. NYPD also had the more than 10 round ban but from what I heard, there was a waiver for them to top off their mags but not for us. I always had a feeling that the suits didn’t try to get a waiver since they didn’t work on the trucks.
That is annoying. I transferred my high capacity magazines out of any convenient radius of my possession after the law passed.
It will take a road trip to retrieve them.
Quit yer bitching, Lars. It was your party leaders who pushed the ban and kept it place.
Cognitive dissonance. It’s a thing.
That also sounded like a “canoe accident” post.
Considering his mental “capacity” maybe he should just stick with low capacity magazines.
You mean he should stick to a single shot Nerf gun?
Yup. But soon Commifornia will outlaw those
Ain’t nobody had a quicksand incident with their guns like I did?
Space aliens in a UFO needed a collection of primitive arms for a documentary.
Anyone know the exchange rate for Mimbari Drachma?
It exchanges somewhat favorably with Galactic Empire Credits, of which the Millennium Falcon bluebooks for a little over 10,000.
I have a few high capacity magazines. I wouldn’t give them up either. Most of my magazines are standard capacity – 30 rounds for the ARs and 15+ for my pistols – so I should have no trouble.
I LOVE the sticker on the case that my Springfield XD45 came in that says “NOT LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA”, I bought it about 14 years ago and I left it on there!
Judge Benitez originally issued a stay against the ban and confiscation order.
That stay was upheld by 3 judges from the 9th Circuit. (2-1 vote)
The actual decision by Benitez in this case is a thing of beauty to read.
The Volokh Conspiracy has a great analysis of the opinion:
http://reason.com/volokh/2019/03/29/district-court-permanently-enjoins-calif
The opinion itself can be read here:
http://michellawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Duncan-2019-03-29-Order-Granting-Plaintiffs-MSJ.pdf
It is indeed a thing of beauty. Though longish (89 pages), it’s quite readable – and IMO worth the time.
Judge Benitez absolutely evicerates the arguments presented by the CA AG’s office. In fact, it appears from reading the opinion that the quality of the CA AG’s arguments are quite close to Commissarian in terms of research skills.
Perhaps the CA AG’s office thought Benitez and his clerks would simply accept their
misrepresentationsassertions without doing any fact-checking whatsoever.FWIW: it’s quite likely Judge Benitez personally experienced Communist rule (he was born in Havana in 1950, and I’d guess his family likely came to the US after Castro took over Cuba). So his being a fan of individual liberty – and his obvious distain for state overreach – isn’t particularly surprising.
PDRofMD has graciously allowed owners of standard capacity magazines to keep them, but forbade the sale or purchase of them in the State.
Seems the Virginia State Line is an easy 20 minute drive for me, and the gun stores there will happily sell me all the mags of any capacity I can carry.
Passing ridiculous and unenforceable laws only weakens the authority of the state, and makes instant criminals of the citizens affected.
The 9th Circuit is not as looneyleft as it was. And it is getting new and rational members at a brisk clip.
MAGA!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/feinstein-fumes-as-trump-administration-pushes-forward-with-9th-circuit-nominees-without-consulting-her
“…since Trump took office, Republicans have held hearings for 12 circuit court nominees and voted to confirm seven – SEVEN!!! (TEH HORROR!!!) – of them over the objection of home state Democrats.” – DiFi’s own words.
This comes off as spoiled bratsmanship as well as lousy sportsmanship, both being attitudes that the source (DiFi Feinstein) doesn’t like losing. Tough bananas. It’s a dog eat dog world and she’s wearing MilkBone underwear.
Of course, that streamlined process works both ways. So voting republican/conservative is really important if you want to hang onto sane judges for cours and second amendment rights.
Some of us have paid no more attention to magazine capacity rules than to paperwork laws.
The gun banners in both the courts and the legislature are immune to arguments based on logic, statistics or reason.
They want guns banned.
Terrorism, mass shootings and public safety have nothing to do with it.
They are doing it California and other states by slow increments.
So we roll back a magazine restriction here or a open carry there.
They are winning by making it difficult or impossible to comply with the Byzantine gun laws.