Not Quite ‘Freedom Week’, But Some Online Ammo Purchases Made It to California

When U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez struck down California’s ban on “large capacity” magazines in 2019 and declined to stay his injunction while the state of California appealed, gun owners across the state took advantage in large numbers. During “Freedom Week”, as it’s colloquially known in the 2A community, it’s estimated that as many as 1-million magazines were purchased by residents of the Golden State. 

Something similar may have happened after a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld Benitez’s decision in Rhode v. Bonta that found California’s background check requirement for ammunition sales unconstitutional. The panel was silent about whether or not the law was still in effect, which resulted in a lot of companies announcing that they were once again shipping directly to California residents. 

Several days later California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that, since the panel didn’t say anything about lifting the stay on Benitez’s injunction, the background check law remained in place and was actively being enforced. Since then most, if not all, of the companies who’d announced the resumption of direct sales to California residents have hit the pause button, but as CalMatters reports, some lucky gunners were still able to complete their orders before Bonta put the hammer down. 

Lifelong hunter J.R. Young of San Jose rushed to an online ammunition dealer last week after a federal court decision overturned a California gun law that required background checks in person at every point of sale.

“Is this freedom week?” he said. “I was just curious to see if this striking down of the law is allowing companies to ship into the state again.

“The way we live in society now — when we want to buy something, we don’t want to go and take a trip to the store.”

… Young kept an eye on his ammunition shipment’s tracking information from Missouri to Kansas on July 26. He’d already been charged for the purchase, but MidwayUSA had updated its website and discontinued sales to California after the justice department’s July 28 notice to dealers.

The two boxes of bullets he ordered arrived at his home on July 30. “LOL, impulsiveness paid off,” said Young, who’d previously expressed a fear of missing out on the chance at lower prices.

“To be honest, I do prefer to support my local businesses,” he said. “I run a small business myself, so I want to buy in my neighborhood. But this one, the ruling just really had me curious as to where it stands.”

To the best of my knowledge (and the latest filings at CourtListener), Bonta has yet to ask for an en banc review of the panel’s decision, and the panel itself hasn’t issued any order related to the continued enforcement of the background check scheme. So, for now anyway, background checks are still required for all in-state ammo purchases, including those that take place online, and California residents are also still forbidden from going out of state to buy ammo and bringing it back home. 

I’m hopeful, but not all that optimistic, that the Ninth Circuit will actually allow Benitez’s injunction to take effect and halt enforcement of this scheme. Firearms freedom shouldn’t last a week or less in California, but for the moment the window has closed on Golden State gun owners being able to place their ammo order with Midway and other online retailers.   

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun control policies and schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.