EMPTY CHAMBER

Court Resurrects California’s High-Capacity Magazine Ban

The ban, signed into law in 2017, had been struck down in 2019.

A federal appeals court reinstated California’s ban on high-capacity magazines Tuesday two years after it was struck down. The 11-judge panel on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the prohibition on the devices was a “reasonable fit for the important government interest of reducing gun violence.” The devices are used to hold 10 or more rounds of ammunitions, often in conjunction with assault weapons. The ban was originally signed into law in 2017. The judges found that forbidding the use of high-capacity magazines impinged “only minimally” on the Second Amendment right to bear arms. California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the ruling, writing, “Weapons of war don’t belong on our streets.”