Judge overturns California's background check requirement on ammo purchases.

A gun store owner shows off a .45 ACP bullet. NBC News/AP.

A judge has overthrown California's background check requirement on ammo purchases, calling it "onerous and convoluted." NBC News. In 2016 proposition 63 passed in the state which banned standard capacity magazines as well as the new background check requirement. Judge Roger Benitez ruled in both cases in favor of gun rights supporters, though he did allow a halt on sales of standard and high capacity magazines in California while the case makes its way through appeals. Judge Benitez said the background check law hurt legal gun owners while doing nothing to actually stop criminals from obtaining ammunition. It is unclear if California will appeal the ruling. The law went into effect last July.

My Comment:

This was the right call. I always thought California's background check law was an attempt to do nothing but punish gun owners for existing. I can see the logic of forcing someone to do a background check if they are buying a firearm but not for ammo. 

I also think there are non-gun rights related reasons to be opposed to the law. I personally like to use background checks as a decent proxy for gun sales but California's new law screwed things up so the numbers aren't quite as useful.

This law as pretty stupid on it's face and was an obvious attempt to punish people who bought ammo. People tend to buy ammo much more frequently then they buy guns for pretty obvious reasons, and this law hurt them for it. If you buy one gun a year and you have to pay for a background check and wait awhile while it is processed, it's not a big deal. But if you have to do so every time you buy ammo that could be a couple of times a month if you are really into shooting. It was adding a massive cost and major inconvenience for people exercising their 2nd amendment rights. 

And it would have done nothing to actually prevent crime. Criminals don't care where their ammo comes from and can either buy it on the black market or just steal it when they steal their gun. It's even fairly easy to make your own ammo if you can find the right components. And of course, the same problem with background checks for firearms is just as present for ammo. Straw buyers purchasing ammo for a forbidden person would pretty much mean the whole system is pointless.

I also think that the Coronavirus pandemic showed how dangerous such a law is. With a rush of new gun buyers everything was slowed down during the great panic buy. People had to wait in hours just to try and buy a gun and ammo and had to do a background check for both. Plus the people that just wanted to top off their supplies had to wait in line with all the gun owners. This probably helped spread the disease in California and I wish that this ruling had come sooner. 

Will California fight this ruling? They probably will but I don't think it will matter. The anti-gun logic here is pretty terrible. Even if you could buy the argument that background checks on ammo is somehow constitutional I don't think that this particular law passes the smell test due to how it was crafted and because of how much of a disaster it was when it was implemented. 

I also think that the anti-gun community is pretty much on their back feet at this point. They are reeling due to rulings like this and the Coronavirus outbreak suddenly creating millions of new gun owners, many of whom are furious with all the restrictions and checks they had to go through just to have a gun to protect their family. My sincere hope is that we have finally defeated this evil movement for good. But I'm not holding my breath.