On Friday, a US District Court Judge ruled that California’s new “law” that bans high-capacity gun magazines is “unconstitutional in its entirety.”  Of course, this is no surprise to those who actually believe the words of the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment, as well as the clear limitations of government to infringe in any way on the rights of the citizens to keep and bear arms of all kinds, including accessories that are used in conjunction with those arms.

“Individual liberty and freedom,” said US District Court Judge Roger Benitez, “are not outmoded concepts. This decision is a freedom calculus decided long ago by Colonists who cherished individual freedom more than the subservient security of a British ruler. The freedom they fought for was not free of cost then, and it is not free now.”

The ruling forbids California Attorney General Xavier Becerra from enforcing the state’s unconstitutional pretended legislation that does not allow for magazines that hold more than ten rounds.

“California’s law prohibiting acquisition and possession of magazines able to hold any more than 10 rounds places a severe restriction on the core right of self-defense of the home such that it amounts to a destruction of the right and is unconstitutional under any level of scrutiny,” he wrote in an 86-page decision.

Not only did the judge shoot down the illegal “law,” but he also took aim at the ridiculous notion that high-capacity magazines served little purpose when it comes to self-defense.

“In one year in California (2017), a population of 39 million people endured 56,609 robberies, 105,391 aggravated assaults, and 95,942 residential burglaries,” wrote Judge Benitez. “There were also 423 homicides in victims’ residences. There were no mass shootings in 2017.

“Nationally, the first study to assess the prevalence of defensive gun use estimated that there are 2.2 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses by civilians each year,” he added. “Of those, 340,000 to 400,000 defensive gun uses were situations where defenders believed that they had almost certainly saved a life by using the gun. Citizens often use a gun to defend against criminal attack.”

The judge also ripped into California representatives and the governor by declaring that they were, in essence, making them a victim which more criminals would prey on as they infringed on the God-given right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms while being oblivious to the fact that criminals could care less about their ban.

“A magazine is an essential mechanical part of a firearm,” said the judge.  “The size limit directly impairs one’s ability to defend one’s self. Neither magazines, nor rounds of ammunition, nor triggers, nor barrels are specifically mentioned in the Second Amendment. Neither are they mentioned in Heller. But without a right to keep and bear triggers, or barrels, or ammunition and the magazines that hold ammunition, the Second Amendment right would be meaningless.”

“California’s ban is far-reaching, absolute, and permanent,” the judge continued.  “The ban on acquisition and possession on magazines able to hold more than 10 rounds, together with the substantial criminal penalties threatening a law-abiding, responsible, citizen who desires such magazines to protect hearth and home, imposes a burden on the constitutional right that this Court judges as severe.”

“The magazine ban arbitrarily selects 10 rounds as the magazine capacity over which possession is unlawful.  The ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of ‘arms’ that is overwhelmingly chosen by American citizens for the lawful purpose of self-defense,” he ruled.

The National Rifle Association praised the ruling in a statement.

“Indeed, he characterized the California law as ‘turning the Constitution upside down.’  He also systematically dismantled each of the state’s purported justifications for the law, demonstrating the factual and legal inconsistencies of their claims.”

Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee who serves on the bench for the Southern District of California, also wrote that California’s ban unfairly impacts a wide swath of the state’s gun owners, as many choose to use magazines containing over 10 rounds for their defense.

Well done, Judge Benitez!  Finally, someone in the judicial system in California with a brain and seems to hold to constitutionality!

Article posted with permission from Freedom Outpost