Second amendment supporters received a huge win Friday when a federal judge ruled California’s 10-Round magazine ban unconstitutional.
In 2000, California banned buying and selling high-capacity magazines. They added a provision that allowed people who already owned them prior to the law to keep them. Then in 2016, California voted to remove that provision.
The National Rifle Association sued on the grounds that it infringed on second amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez temporarily froze the ban in 2017 until a decision could be made.
Benitez delivered that decision on Friday. He cited home invasion cases as part of his reasoning. In one case, a woman used a high-capacity magazine to kill an intruder. In two other cases, women who did not have high-capacity magazines ran out of bullets.
An attorney for the NRA, Chuck Michel, said they believe this ruling may overturn the law altogether. “We’re still digesting the opinion but it appears to us that he struck down both the latest ban on possessing by those who are grandfathered in, but also said that everyone has a right to acquire one,” Michel said.
The California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is also reviewing the decision and says his office is “committed to defending California’s common sense gun laws.”
WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT
While the ruling is encouraging to 2A supporters, the battle is far from over. The decision will likely be appealed to the Ninth Circuit which has not ruled favorably on second amendment issues in the past.
NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox said, “Judge Benitez took the Second Amendment seriously and came to the conclusion required by the Constitution. The same should be true of any court analyzing a ban on a class of arms law-abiding Americans commonly possess for self-defense or other lawful purposes.”
What are your thoughts on the California high-capacity magazine ban being overturned?
