A federal judge blocked a California law requiring background checks for every ammunition purchase on Thursday.
District Court judge Roger Benitez blocked the state from enforcing the law, which was passed in a 2016 ballot initiative and went into effect in July 2019. Benitez called the restrictions “onerous and convoluted” with a high rate of false-positives that violated the Second Amendment rights of Californians, as well as running afoul of the commerce clause.
“The experiment has been tried. The casualties have been counted,” Benitez wrote. “California’s new ammunition background check law misfires and the Second Amendment rights of California citizens have been gravely injured.”
The ruling dealt a blow to one of the strictest gun-control measures in the country and could provide new clarity on the extent to which voters and state governments can curtail gun rights.
The case was filed by NRA affiliate the California Rifle and Pistol Association and three-time Olympic gold medalist Kim Rhode. They claimed the state’s ban on carrying ammunition across state lines, coupled with the requirement that all sales be subject to a background check—unlike most other states which only require checks for gun sales—made it far more difficult to legally purchase ammunition in the state. The system had a 16.4 percent false-positive rate with an appeals process that forced residents to wait months to correct those problems. The National Rifle Association, which helped fund the suit, celebrated the ruling. – READ MORE
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --