Weeks after issuing some surprisingly sensible Second Amendment jurisprudence, the country’s most liberal federal court is up to its old tricks again. Well, we all knew it wouldn’t last. Weeks after two different Ninth Circuit panels surprisingly upheld Second Amendment rights by blocking California’s confiscation of large-capacity magazines and Hawaii’s ban on open carry, the nation’s most progressive circuit returned to form. In a ruling earlier this month, it upheld one of the most bizarre and nonsensical gun regulations in the nation. It did so by essentially ignoring the plain language of Heller and approving a legal regime that will naturally and inevitably lead to diminishing options for citizens who seek to lawfully exercise their constitutional right to self-defense.
Here are the basic facts. California’s Unsafe Handgun Act requires new handguns sold in the state to have three key safety features. First, new guns must have an indicator that shows when a round is loaded in the weapon’s chamber. Second, new guns must have a magazine-detachment mechanism that prevents the gun from discharging when a magazine is not in it. Finally, the third provision “requires new handguns to stamp microscopically the handgun’s make, model, and serial number onto each fired shell casing.”
The Unsafe Handgun Act is just as problematic as it sounds.
For one thing, to quote the majority opinion: “According to the [plaintiffs], no handguns were available in the United States that met the microstamping requirements. The record does not indicate whether and how these figures have changed over time.” (Emphasis added.) That means California was granting consumers permission to buy guns that didn’t exist on the market.
For another, California “grandfathered in” a defined list of makes and models of handguns exempted from the law, but the list didn’t include a number of the most popular models in the United States, and gun-makers must pay California a fee to keep their weapons on it. Naturally, the list is shrinking fast: “At the end of 2013, the CDOJ’s handgun roster contained 1,273 handguns and 883 semiautomatics. As of oral argument in March 2017, it contained 744 handguns and 496 semiautomatics.” That’s a loss of hundreds of approved weapons in under four years.
Let’s be clear: This law represents slow-motion prohibition. Imagine if California passed an “Unsafe Automobile Act” that said all new cars sold had to either a) come from a roster of models approved by the state only after their manufacturers paid a fee or b) be able to fly. Each year, the approved roster shrank as carmakers either discontinued models or refused to pay the fees. And each year carmakers refused to design and build flying cars.
More at: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/...&utm_content=1
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