California Appeals Court Upholds Ban on Higher-Capacity Magazines, Spurring Unusual Video Dissent
Source: US News and World Report/AP
March 20, 2025, at 8:59 p.m.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An appeals court ruled Thursday that California’s law banning gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition can remain in place, a decision that prompted one judge to record an unusual video dissent that shows him loading guns in his chambers.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4 that the law was permissible under the Second Amendment because large-capacity magazines are not considered “arms” or “protected accessories." Even if they were, California's ban ”falls within the Nation’s tradition of protecting innocent persons by prohibiting especially dangerous uses of weapons and by regulating components necessary to the firing of a firearm," the opinion stated.
Judge Lawrence VanDyke disagreed, and included a link to a video of himself posted on YouTube in his dissent. “This is the first video like this that I've ever made,” VanDyke said. “I share this because a rudimentary understanding of how guns are made, sold, used, and commonly modified makes obvious why California's proposed test and the one my colleagues are adopting today simply does not work.”
In the video, VanDyke handles several guns in his chambers and demonstrates how they are loaded and fired. He also shows high-capacity magazines and argues that they are no different from other gun accessories that could be added to a firearm to make it more dangerous. Under the majority's logic, he said, that would allow the government to pick and choose any of them to be banned. Judge Marsha S. Berzon criticized VanDyke's video in a separate opinion, saying he was including “facts outside the record” and was, in essence, appointing himself an expert witness in the case.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2025-03-20/california-appeals-court-upholds-ban-on-higher-capacity-magazines-spurring-unusual-video-dissent
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