Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multistate friend-of-the-court brief before the San Francisco-based Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit defending Americans’ Second Amendment rights after California banned standard-capacity magazines for firearms, which hold eleven to fifteen rounds. In the 41 states that allow them, these standard-capacity magazines are common to the point of ubiquity among law-abiding gun owners and their use promotes public safety.
“Banning magazines commonly used by law-abiding citizens is a blatant violation of the Second Amendment. California’s law must be struck down,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The right to bear arms is of vital importance to millions of Americans, particularly the most vulnerable in our communities. Criminalizing the mere possession of standard magazines not only flies in the face of the Constitution, but it strips citizens of potentially life-saving defense.”
The United States Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision clarified that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own firearms that are commonly used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, including for self-defense or defense of “hearth and home.” Because California banned magazines that come standard with many of the most popular firearms sold today, the brief argues that California’s law infringed its citizens’ Second Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.
Read a copy of the brief here.