Back in 2017, a District Court judge in California overturned the state’s illegal, Second Amendment-infringing restriction on firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the judge’s ruling. Now that the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling from 2020 is the law of the land, the judge has once again struck down California’s magazine ban in what is likely to be a landmark victory this time.
Judge Roger Benitez was clear in his ruling last week: California doesn’t get to ban magazines based on the number of rounds they hold.
As Benitez stated in his ruling:
“There is no American history or tradition of regulating firearms based on the number of rounds they can shoot, or of regulating the amount of ammunition that can be kept and carried.”
Benitez has issued an injunction staying his own order for a few days. That will give Attorney General Rob Bonta some time to cry like a little b**ch about it since he’s not allowed to infringe on the civil liberties of Californians in this way any longer. Bonta will likely appeal the Benitez decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The outcome this time, however, will likely be very different than it was back in 2017. The 2017 Ninth Circuit was a majority liberal court known for handing down some of the nuttiest and most obviously unconstitutional decisions in the world. Today, the Ninth Circuit is a majority conservative court, just like the US Supreme Court.
Even if the California Attorney General is able to delay the implementation of Benitez’s order to allow the possession of so-called “high-capacity magazines,” the ban’s days are officially number. The Bruen decision is now the law of the land, and it has caused a sea change in how the courts are allowed to rule on illegal gun-grabbing restrictions.
