SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal appeals court said Tuesday that California can ban high-capacity magazines.
Plenty of questions are circulating, such as when the ban goes into place and what it means if you own a magazine that has ten rounds of ammunition or more.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said those are complicated questions. There still needs to be another order to officially put the ban in place. So, it technically could go into effect in as soon as a few days unless it’s fought again and goes up to the supreme court, which is very likely.
Backed by then Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of a ban on high-capacity magazines in 2016.
"The ban went into effect," legal analyst Wendy Patrick said. "It was not met with overwhelming support by many people that do own guns or believe in gun rights. That was then appealed."
Patrick said the appeal was successful. The ban would not go into effect until that decision was again fought in court.
“The court said that this ruling only minimally interferes with the core right to self-defense, and as evidence, they said there's really no evidence that anyone has ever been unable to defend his or her home and family, due to the lack of owning a large capacity magazine," Patrick said.
Bonta described the ruling as a win for California.
"It's important because large-capacity magazines have historically, the data show's, been used in mass shootings," Bonta said, "and in 75% of the cases where 10 or more people have been killed."
Craig Deluz is the CEO of a firearms-focused news service, 2A News.
"I would say that the attorney general does not know what he's talking about," Deluz said.
He said more people die from regular handguns.
“A mass casualty event, or what's called a mass shooting event, actually is four or more, " Deluz said. "So I don't know where he came up with a number of 10 except that he probably just kept looking for statistics and massaging numbers till he found one that fit... his talking points."
Bonta is quick to respond to statements like that one.
"There are many ways that guns threaten and cause loss of life, and handguns are one for sure," Bonta said, "but high-capacity magazines in mass shootings, the data is absolutely clear, that more people die because of high-capacity magazines and there’s no compelling counterpoint."
Political reporter Morgan Rynor asked Bonta what the ban means for people in California who own high-capacity magazines and whether those magazines could be taken away.
"It means that it will be illegal, and they need to comply with the law," he answered.
"If they have it in possession of an illegal large-capacity magazine based on an order that could come in the next couple of days, they should surrender it or dispossess themselves of it," he said. "If they're found to have it, either by a targeted investigation or found to be in their possession when they're interacting with a law enforcement agent in some other way, that will be a violation of the law."
This latest ruling is expected to be appealed and brought to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court doesn’t have to take the case, but Patrick said because this topic is so divisive and there’s no clear ruling on this nationally yet, they will most likely listen to it.
The Supreme Court is 6-3 conservative.
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