A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday overruled a lower court decision that blocked a California law requiring individuals seeking to buy ammunition to undergo a background check, allowing the state to mandate background checks for ammunition buyers.
The 2-1 decision by Judges Richard Clifton and Holly Thomas, Bush- and Biden-era appointees respectively, allows enforcement of long-standing “ammunition laws” pending an appeal by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Judge Consuelo Callahan dissented from the order, citing a belief that Bonta had not met his burden by showing the appeal had a likelihood of success on the merits or an occurrence of “irreparable injury absent the stay.” The laws in question require that “purchasers submit to a background check before [an] ammunition sale or transfer may be completed.”
Rhode v. Bonta, which includes former US Olympian shooter Kim Rhode as a plaintiff, challenged the “ammunition laws” as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, winning an injunction against the law at the district level. Roger Benitez, the presiding district judge in the decision has a history of striking down California gun control statutes, including a ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and now ammunition background checks. Judge Benitez cited the US Supreme Court’s opinion in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen stating that the checks had no “historical pedigree” and that the background check requirement would have never been accepted by the country’s “ancestors” due to its sweeping reach.
The Bruen decision set a new standard for Second Amendment cases requiring that gun laws be “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” The state’s motion to stay filing had argued that Bruen was misapplied and that the Supreme Court had confirmed that background checks are constitutional. The motion also cited a “substantial risk of harm” to the public warranted a stay of the lower court’s order. Attorney General Bonta praised the injunction, saying the state had regained a “crucial tool in the fight against gun violence.”
California and the Ninth Circuit have become a battleground for all types of gun control laws, ranging from assault weapons bans to public carry regulations and increased taxation on ammunition for gun violence intervention programs. Many of these laws have generated a multitude of cases that are now pending at the appeals court level, with outcomes remaining to be seen.
