Gun Owners, Second Amendment Groups Sue CA Over High-Capacity Magazines

Seven gun owners in California and The Second Amendment Foundation, The Calguns Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition and Firearms Policy Foundation have filed a lawsuit challenging the Golden State’s ban on “high-capacity magazines.” As of July 1, California gun owners are required to turn over magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, something the plaintiffs, in this case, feel is unconstitutional.

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Senate Bill 1446 was signed into law, which banned residents from owning these magazines. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gun control legislation, Prop 63, which passed last November, completely banned “high-capacity” magazines, which were previously grandfathered in. As of July 1, anyone owning a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds must turn them into local or state officials or face criminal liability and fines.

“The plaintiffs believe that the State’s ban violates their constitutional rights, including their fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms protected under the Second Amendment, because magazines are ‘an intrinsic part of all semi-automatic firearms’ and ‘are not merely individual pieces of personal property, but rather, are intrinsic and inherent constitutionally-protected parts of constitutionally-protected firearms,’ a press release reads.

The case, known as William Wiese v. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, hopes to overturn this out-right ban.

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“California’s magazine ban laws violate the constitutional rights of law-abiding people in many ways,” said attorney George M. Lee, a partner of the plaintiffs’ San Francisco law firm Seiler Epstein Ziegler & Applegate LLP. “Not only does the ban infringe on Second Amendment rights, but it is clearly now a taking of private property. In fact, as we contend in the complaint, it amounts to a de facto confiscation.”

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