Gun rights advocates on Tuesday won another round in the fight against a state law that aims to ban high-capacity gun magazines.

The California law restricting gun magazines to 10 bullets was set to go into effect last July, but U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego granted a preliminary injunction until a lawsuit by gun owners could be litigated further.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the preliminary injunction in a 2-1 ruling.

Meanwhile, the case — Duncan v. Becerra — has been moving through the district court. The ruling means the law won’t go into effect until the case can be litigated in full. The district judge is considering a motion for summary judgement, which is a major step that dictates if the case goes to trial.


Attorneys for the state are reviewing the Court’s opinion. “The California Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the challenged law,” an agency spokesperson said.

The ruling is in contrast to a 2015 decision that upheld a similar magazine ban in the Bay Area city of Sunnyvale. But Benitez had pointed out a major difference — Sunnyvale is a densely populated city in Silicon Valley whereas San Diego and Imperial counties have vast backcountry areas.

In deciding to grant the injunction, Benitez said “public safety interests may not eviscerate the Second Amendment” and that gun owners should be able to decide for themselves how many bullets are enough, depending on the situation.

The lawsuit is filed by the California Rifle and Pistol Association — an affiliate of the National Rifle Association — on behalf of gun owners who either want the magazines for self defense or already own them and don’t want to be forced to give them up.


“This is a significant win for law-abiding gun owners in California,” Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. “This unconstitutional law criminalizes mere possession of many standard capacity magazines and would instantly turn many law-abiding gun owners into criminals.”

In a dissenting opinion, Senior Judge John Clifford Wallace, a San Diego native, said Benitez abused his discretion by granting the injunction. The judge also said Benitez did not equally weigh the evidence put forth by the California Attorney General’s Office against the gun owners’ evidence.

Still, he credited Benitez for continuing to move the case forward while the appeal on the injunction was underway.


kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis