Another Second Amendment win, this time in the People’s Republic of California.
A San Diego federal judge on Wednesday again struck down a state law that required background checks for nearly all purchases of firearm ammunition and barred California residents from bringing home ammunition that they purchased out of state.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez ruled that such restrictions violate the Second Amendment. He also ruled that the portion of the law restricting out-of-state purchases violated the dormant Commerce Clause and is preempted by federal law regulating interstate transportation of firearms.
Benitez had previously struck down the same law in April 2020, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the law just days later while the government appealed the ruling. Before the 9th Circuit could rule on that appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in a New York gun case that upended Second Amendment case law.
After the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, the 9th Circuit sent the case back to Benitez to be relitigated under that new framework, which holds that modern gun laws must be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
Benitez found that the “ammunition background checks laws have no historical pedigree and operate in such a way that they violate the Second Amendment right of citizens to keep and bear arms.” He issued an immediate injunction barring the state from enforcing the law.
The California Rifle & Pistol Association, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement that Wednesday’s ruling represents “continued progress in rolling back decades of attacks on the rights of lawful gun owners.”
Chuck Michel, president and general counsel of the group, said the ruling showed, once again, that the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision has greatly impacted how courts must analyze “these absurdly restrictive laws.”
Snip.
“In the end, the State has failed to carry its burden to demonstrate that the ammunition background check laws ‘are consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,’ as required by Bruen,” the judge wrote. “… A sweeping background check requirement imposed every time a citizen needs to buy ammunition is an outlier that our ancestors would have never accepted for a citizen.”
He also wrote that state data showed too many people seeking to lawfully purchase ammunition were being rejected because of flaws in the system. He said that according to state statistics, when the system was first implemented in 2019, the rejection rate was 16 percent. That has since fallen to 11 percent, “but is still too high,” he wrote.
When a circuit court as notoriously liberal feels compelled to send cases back to lower court in light of Bruen, the the Second Amendment is winning.
On the downside, the Democratic Party in general, and California Democrats in particular, have proven that no amount of rulings will prevent them from pursuing the goal of complete disarmament of law-abiding citizens.
Expect California Democrats to respond by passing a whole slew of gun-grabbing legislation that continues to ignore the clear guidelines of Bruen.
Tags: 9th Circuit Court, California, gun control, Guns, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, Regulation, Roger Benitez
There is a never ending struggle between those who cherish political liberty and those who would deny it to them. For decades, the bad guys in California have had the upper hand. Perhaps they believed a new era of progressive dominance had been achieved and they would be free to stomp their boot on the face of gun owners forever.
Well, if the crown does not endure from one generation to the next. how much more ephemeral is the power held by those whose continuity of control relies on the vagaries of courts and public opinion?
The progs have suffered three adverse Supreme Court rulings in recent years: McDonald, Heller and Bruen. As the inferior appellate courts work out the details of these decisions, more and more lost ground is being recaptured.
I have seen the future. We win; they lose.
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“When a circuit court as notoriously liberal feels compelled to send cases back to lower court in light of Bruen, the the Second Amendment is winning.”
Au contraire. Judge Benitez’s original ruling was under both intermediate scrutiny AND the THT test adopted in Bruen. Like his CA AWB decision, Ninth Circuit should simply have recognzied that his decision was correct under Bruen and affirmed it.
But the Ninth Circuit ever affirming anything that strikes down a California gun control law is unthinkable, so like all the other pre-Bruen decisions by Benitez they sent it back for him to essentially say, “I already did this.”
And now CTA9 will stay his decision pending appeal, and proceed to sit on the appeal as long as they can. (Look at how they sat of Young v. Hawaii for YEARS.) And unfortunately, ACB and Roberts lack the stones to overturn the stay pending appeal (Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh are willing to do so)..
“US. District Judge Roger Benitez ruled that such restrictions violate the Second Amendment. He also ruled that the portion of the law restricting out-of-state purchases violated the dormant Commerce Clause and is preempted by federal law regulating interstate transportation of firearms.”
In the interest of economy, Attorney General Rob Bonta is willing to defend TWO legal violations in ONE court case. All hail the thrifty adversary!
This spectacle illustrates to one and all that officers of the state are everywhere and at all times predisposed to violate their oath of office to uphold the US Constitution. This further illustrates the necessity of a well-regulated citizen army being fully armed for the necessary purpose of defending a free state against the arrogant prerogatives of a would-be tyrant.
Thank God for the prescience of our country’s founders who labored assiduously to protect their posterity from the depredations of ambition and avarice.
Washington Legislature: “Hold my beer”