California’s ban on the possession of “high capacity” magazines goes into effect on July 1, and Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko made clear he has no plans to send deputies out to collect them.
Bosenko said, “We’re not going to be knocking on anybody’s door looking for them.”
According to the Sacramento Bee, Bosenko said the new law effectively makes “law-abiding citizens into criminals” while doing nothing to stop criminals from continuing to prey on law-abiding citizens.
California banned the sale of “high capacity” magazines in 2010, but the state government allowed Californians who already owned such magazines to maintain possession of them. In 2016, Democrat lawmakers pushed through a ban that covered possession of the magazines also, and Breitbart News reported Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the new ban on July 1, 2016.
The new ban takes effect July 1, 2017, and requires those in possession of “high capacity” magazines to:
(1) Remove the large-capacity magazine from the state.
(2) Prior to July 1, 2017, sell the large-capacity magazine to a licensed firearms dealer.
(3) Destroy the large-capacity magazine.
(4) Surrender the large-capacity magazine to a law enforcement agency for destruction.
Ari Freilich of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence spoke in support of the ban, saying, “There’s just a lot of data that shows that large-capacity magazines are particularly attractive to mass shooters and to individuals committing crimes against law enforcement. They do not have legitimate self-defense value.”
Freilich did not provide any source for his “data,” nor did he mention that the May 23, 2014, Santa Barbara attacker used only ten-round magazines when shooting innocents. More recently, the Fresno attacker used a revolver, which is not impacted by any type of magazine ban.
The fact that “high capacity” magazine bans do not stop crime–and do not keep criminals from possessing such magazines–is yet another reason many Californians appear determined to hold on to their magazines. And Last Stand Tactical’s Chris Lapinski asks why Californians would consider complying in the first place. He said, “Why would you (get rid of them)? You have your Fourth Amendment, which is the right to due process. You can’t just take something away from somebody that they own without violating the Fourth Amendment.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.