A California rule that limited the size of gun magazines was thrown out by a federal court last week. The law that said magazines couldn’t hold more than 10 rounds was ruled illegal by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
In his letter, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez said that these magazines “of all sizes are necessary parts of semiautomatic firearms.” Because of this, magazines are covered by the constitutional clause that says “the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
The judge’s words sound a lot like those used in the Heller case in 2008, in which the Supreme Court overturned strict rules on gun ownership in Washington, D.C.
Voters in California agreed with the law that was thrown out in a 2016 ballot.
A judge wrote that millions of law-abiding citizens own removable gun magazines that can hold between 10 and 30 rounds for legal reasons, such as self-defense, and that these magazines are likely related to serving in the militia. This means that the magazines are likely protected by the Second Amendment.
In his writing, Benitez called the rule a “sweeping ban and dispossession mandate.”
The judge wrote that the Second Amendment only lets states make laws “against the use or misuse of firearms with unlawful intent,” not laws that try to stop everyone from using guns.
He also said that the founders of the country “valued individual freedom with its risks more than the subservient security of a British ruler or the suffocating safety of domestic lawmakers” when they passed the Second Amendment.
There was a fight for this kind of freedom more than 200 years ago, the judge wrote, “and that freedom is entitled to be preserved still.”
This is the second time Benitez has overturned a California law that limited the number of magazines that could be sold. The state is going to challenge the decision.
Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) didn’t like Benitez’s decision and called the judge a “right-wing zealot with no regard for human life.”
Then he called for a change to the Constitution that would make it harder for Americans to keep and carry guns.
