Just a little over two weeks ago the California Department of Justice dropped a bomb on the citizens of their own state. The DOJ suggested a new regulation which would require all gun owners to dispose of their standard capacity (10+ round) magazines prior to July 1, 2017. Students of Constitutional law might recognize this as an illegal seizure of private property without compensation from the state, something specifically forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. CA DOJ officials apparently didn’t think that the minor wrinkle applied to evil gun owners and their deplorable fetish objects. News comes tonight that the California DOJ has just withdrawn their proposal as abruptly as it was introduced.
From the FPC:
Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has confirmed that the California Department of Justice (DOJ) has withdrawn their proposed “emergency” regulations on large-capacity magazines.
A December 29, 2016 Office of Administrative Law (OAL) memo, sent to Attorney General Kamala Harris today, states that “This notice confirms that your proposed regulatory action regarding Large-Capacity Magazines was withdrawn from OAL review pursuant to Government Code section 11349.3(c).”
This is good news for residents of California. For now, at least. There’s little doubt that what California lawmakers want most is to make gun ownership as onerous and complicated as possible in order to discourage and eventually eradicate the practice from their hallowed shores. To that end I would expect this issue to pop up again sometime in the near future, but hopefully there will be a Republican stacked Supreme Court ready to set these left coasters to rights.