JUDGE DENIES STAY OF INJUNCTION NIXING AMMO LAW

State files notice of appeal of ruling on background checks

A San Diego federal judge refused on Friday to delay implementing the injunction he issued a day earlier that halted enforcement of a state law requiring background checks for ammunition buyers, prompting the office of state Attorney General Xavier Becerra to head to an appeals court.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez issued a lengthy ruling Thursday concluding the state law requiring a background check for ammo purchases violated the Second Amendment rights of gun owners in the state. He also said a part of the law banning bringing in ammo from other states without it first being sent through a licensed dealer violated the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

On Friday state lawyers filed a motion asking Benitez to immediately issue a stay of the injunction until they could file an appeal. State lawyers said the action was needed immediately because “ammunition vendors have already started selling ammunition without background checks, creating the near certainty that prohibited persons—convicted felons, violent misdemeanants, and others prohibited by law from possessing firearms and ammunition—will have easy access to ammunition.”

But Benitez was not persuaded. He said he did not think the state would win an appeal and said the focus on prohibited people buying ammunition was misplaced. In his ruling, Benitez said that thousands of state residents who should have been able to buy ammunition had not been able to because of a flawed checking system that erroneously denied purchase to 16 percent of applicants.

“Without an injunction, these law-abiding individuals have no legal way to acquire the ammunition which they enjoy the constitutional right of possession,” Benitez wrote. “These law-abiding individuals whose numbers are vast have no way to lawfully acquire ammunition to defend themselves, their families and their homes. The injunction restores that right.”

By the end of the day, state lawyers had filed a notice of appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com