Home » Appeals Courts: CA Hi-Cap Magazine Ban, FL Under-21 Restriction Constitutional

Appeals Courts: CA Hi-Cap Magazine Ban, FL Under-21 Restriction Constitutional

Two United States Courts of Appeals handed gun violence prevention advocates significant victories last week.

First, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s law prohibiting large-capacity magazines as constitutional. The en banc (meaning all court judges heard the case rather than just one; they do this when a case is seen as especially important) court held that California’s law comports with the Second Amendment, reversing a district court’s contrary conclusion. The court also rejected plaintiffs’ challenge to the law under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause.

From 2015 to 2022, shootings with four or more people killed where large-capacity magazines were used resulted in nearly five times as many people shot, more than twice as many people killed, and nearly 10 times as many people wounded per incident, on average. Additionally, in that time period, at least eight of the ten deadliest mass shootings involved a large-capacity magazine.

Currently, 14 states and Washington, D.C. prohibit large-capacity magazines. These laws were repeatedly upheld by federal courts in the fourteen years between the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which first held that there is an individual right under the Second Amendment, and its June 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. Courts applying Bruen and the Supreme Court’s most recent Second Amendment ruling in United States v. Rahimi have continued to uphold them—including the four federal courts of appeals to reach this issue since Bruen (the First, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits, joined today by the Ninth Circuit) and federal district courts in California, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Also last week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to uphold Florida’s law prohibiting individuals under the age of 21 from buying firearms.

“Prohibiting 18-21 year olds from purchasing firearms is a commonsense tool for preventing gun violence, and today’s decision confirms that it’s also constitutional,” said Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law. “This result will save lives, and it is notable that the strong majority in today’s decision includes judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic Presidents.”

Research shows that 18- to 20-year-olds commit gun homicides at triple the rate of adults 21 years and older. Named the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act,” Florida’s life-saving law was passed in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting and prohibits the purchase of firearms by persons under the age of 21.