Gun Control Advocates: Feds Need to Help Enforce CA's Gun Laws

California is known to have some of the toughest – if not the toughest – gun laws in the country. And they’re about to get even more stringent in the next couple years after voters passed a ban on “high-capacity magazines” and restricting ammo purchases. But according to gun control advocates, that’s not enough. In fact, gun violence is such a problem in the Sunshine State that anti-gunners want the feds to step in.

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“We have tightened our laws but we don’t have closed (states’) borders,” State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Until Congress acts and addresses what is a national issue in a country awash in guns, we’re going to see these horrific tragedies.”

According to people like Wiener, California’s gun problem stems from other states’ lax firearms law

“The laws that have been passed only disarm law-abiding citizens and prevent them from being able to defend themselves,” said Craig DeLuz of the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), a nonprofit whose working to overturn these gun laws.

The FPC and NRA have filed separate lawsuits challenging the legality of the laws. According to both groups, the state’s laws violate Constitutional rights.

Lasts week, both the FPC and NRA filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to put a hold on the state’s ban on high-capacity magazines, which is set to go into effect July 1. According to the two groups, the law violates people’s gun ownership and property rights. Although high-capacity magazines are no longer for sale in the Sunshine State, last year’s Prop. 63 also bans their possession.

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Additional lawsuits have been filed to challenge the state’s bullet button, which requires a gun owner to use a tool, instead of his or her thumb, to release a magazine.

The Supreme Court has a number of pending lawsuits before them including Peruta v. San Diego and Richards v. Prieto, both of which challenge a county’s “good cause” requirements. It is still unclear whether or not SCOTUS will hear these cases.

An earlier version of this report cited the California State Supreme Court as the court responsible for hearing pending lawsuits. This report has been corrected to accurately reflect the Supreme Court.

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