9th Circuit ends California ban on high-capacity magazines
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal son Friday threw out California's ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution's protection of the right to bear firearms.
“Even well-intentioned laws must pass constitutional muster,” appellate Judge Kenneth Lee wrote for the panel' s majority. California' s ban on magazines holding more than 10 bullets “strikes at the core of the Second Amendment — the right to armed self-defense.”
He noted that California passed the law“in the wake of heart- wrenching and highly publicized mass shootings,” but said that isn't enough to justify a ban whose scope “is so sweeping that half of all magazines in America are now unlawful to own in California.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra's office said it is reviewing the decision and he “remains committed to using every tool possible to defend California's gun safety laws and keep our communities safe.”
Gun owners can not immediately rush to buy high-capacity magazines because a stay issued by the lower court judge remains in place.
But Becerra did not say if the state would seek a further delay of Friday's ruling to prevent an immediate buying spree if the lower court judge ends that restriction. Gun groups estimated that more than a million high-capacity ammunition magazines may have legally flooded into California during a oneweek window before the judge stayed his ruling three years ago.
Becerra also did not say if he would ask a larger 11-judge appellate panel to reconsider the ruling by the three judges, or if he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who championed the magazine ban when he was lieutenant governor, defended the law as a vital gun violence prevention measure.
“I think it was sound, I think it was right, and ... the overwhelming majority of Californians agreed when t hey supported a ballot initiative that we put forth,” he said Friday.
California Rifle& Pistol Association attorney Chuck Michel called Friday's decision “a huge victory” for gun owners “and the right to choose to own a firearm to defend your family ,” while a group that favors firearms restrictions called it “dangerous” and expects it will be overturned.
The ruling has national implications because other states have similar restrictions, though it immediately applies only to Western states under the appeals court's jurisdiction.
Gun rights groups have been trying to get such cases before the nation's high court now that it has a more conservative majority.
The decision written by an appellate judge appointed by President Donald Trump “should put gun safety advocates across the country on high alert,” said Giffords Law Center Litigation Director Hannah Shearer. “These judges are gaining potentially irreversible inroads on our appellate courts.”
However, the Supreme Court's majority in June declined to consider several challenges to federal and state gun control laws, including Massachusetts' ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Aside from the magazine ban itself, Michel and the unaffiliated Second Amendment Foundation said the case has legal implications for other gun restrictions should it reach the justices because it could allow the court to clarify an obscure legal debate over what standard of review should be used.