An appeals court ruled Thursday that California’s law banning gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition can remain in place, a decision that prompted one judge to record an unusual video dissent that shows him loading guns in his chambers.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4 that the law was permissible under the Second Amendment because large-capacity magazines are not considered “arms” or “protected accessories."
Even if they were, California's ban ”falls within the Nation’s tradition of protecting innocent persons by prohibiting especially dangerous uses of weapons and by regulating components necessary to the firing of a firearm," the opinion stated.
Judge Lawrence VanDyke disagreed, and included a link to a video of himself posted on YouTube in his dissent.
“This is the first video like this that I've ever made,” VanDyke said. “I share this because a rudimentary understanding of how guns are made, sold, used, and commonly modified makes obvious why California's proposed test and the one my colleagues are adopting today simply does not work.”
In the video, VanDyke handles several guns in his chambers and demonstrates how they are loaded and fired. He also shows high-capacity magazines and argues that they are no different from other gun accessories that could be added to a firearm to make it more dangerous. Under the majority's logic, he said, that would allow the government to pick and choose any of them to be banned.
Judge Marsha S. Berzon criticized VanDyke's video in a separate opinion, saying he was including “facts outside the record” and was, in essence, appointing himself an expert witness in the case.
The law has remained in effect as the state appealed a 2023 ruling by a district court judge in San Diego that it was unconstitutional. The ruling was in response to legal action filed by four individuals and the California Rifle & Pistol Association challenging the law’s constitutionality under the Second Amendment.
The majority opinion judges said their decision to uphold the law is in line with a Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that set a new standard that relies more on the historical tradition of gun regulation rather than public interests, including safety.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta praised the appeals court's decision.
“This commonsense restriction on how many rounds a gunman can fire before they must pause to reload has been identified as a critical intervention to limit a lone shooter’s capacity to turn shootings into mass casualty attacks," Bonta said in a statement. "Let me be clear, this law saves lives.”
