“Well, screw me!” every gun owner in California collectively said at the news U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez’s ruling just last week had been stayed by a higher court panel. Benitez had ruled that the state’s requirement people get background checks for each ammo purchase was unconstitutional. Of course, the court panel that issued the stay is none other than the infamous 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals headquartered out of San Francisco, which is so liberal, the court’s rulings typically border on enforcing near communistic doctrine. China’s Xi Jinping’s policies would get a more favorable ruling than anything draped in traditional American values.
The stay effectively allows California to again require its residents buying ammo to submit to a background check with each purchase.
The stay of the ruling in the case of Rhode v. Bonta was amazingly decided on a 2-1 vote by the three-judge panel with Circuit Judges Holly A. Thomas and Richard Clifton ordering the stay with Judge Consuelo Callahan dissenting.
In her dissenting opinion, Callahan wrote, “I would deny the motion for a stay pending appeal. I do not believe appellant has met the burden of showing a likelihood of success on the merits or that irreparable injury will occur absent a stay.” The view offers some legal hope for a path forward as lawyers supporting the Rhode case will “seek further review by a different panel of the court” according to a Reuters news report.
The case was brought against the state by Olympic shooter, Kim Rhode, a three-time gold medal winner, and the California Rifle & Pistol Association.
California voters originally approved a ballot measure in 2016 requiring gun owners to undergo an initial background check and then buy a $50, four-year permit to purchase ammunition. In 2019, state legislators amended the law to require a background check for each and every ammunition purchase. Each background check costs the buyer $1 to be paid to the state Department of Justice to cover the cost of running the instant background check. If a person has never had their background checked, they must pay $19 for a paper background check and then return a few days later if approved when they can pick up their ammunition.
According to California Waterfowl, a California-based conservation organization:
One in six (people buying ammunition), however, can’t pass the background check, and the reason for the overwhelming majority of them is rooted in records (more on that below). Of the 102,147 people this law has stopped from buying ammunition as of this writing, 758 were actually “prohibited persons.” The rest were just rejected by a system that works poorly.
No doubt, this law will continue to wind its way through the courts, potentially reaching the Supreme Court at some time with California gun owners being batted back and forth like a tennis ball with each ruling. Meanwhile, the state continues to slide into an abyss of crime, chaos, illegal immigration and homeless druggie feces because the state’s leaders refuse to enforce the real laws that would improve life for families and hard-working Californians.
