Big Month for Gun Control Rulings: This Ninth Circuit Appellate Case Tackles Large-Capacity Magazines

The Second Amendment and Gun Control 

Ghost Guns and Large-Capacity Magazines 
By Robert Phillips, Deputy District Attorney (Ret).

The last half of March was a big month for gun control. As already reported in an article by Ray Hill, Legal Updates’ in-house Santa Rosa Junior College Professor Emeritus, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision held that “ghost guns” or “undetectable weapons” (build-it-yourself gun kits, mainly bought online, that include all the parts of a gun but are untraceable when assembled) are illegal unless embedded with a serial number (See Legal Updates reference # CAB10041) and (See Bondi v. Vanderstok [Mar. 26, 2025] 604 U.S. [2025 U.S. LEXIS 1280].)  

The case provides an interpretation of several federal statutes involving the importation, manufacturing or dealing in firearms, and, being from the U.S. Supreme Court, affects the entire nation.  

Less than a week earlier, an en banc (11-justice) panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision concerning the legality of what are commonly referred to as “large-capacity magazines,” a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds of ammunition (as defined in P.C. § 16740). On March 20, the Ninth Circuit held in Duncan v. Bonta (9th Cir. Mar. 20, 2025) F.4th [2025 U.S.App. LEXIS 6528], that California has the constitutional authority to make the possession of large-capacity magazines illegal, and, in fact, has done so. 

The primary issue in Duncan was whether California’s attempt to regulate large-capacity magazines was constitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn v. Bruen (2022) 597 U.S. 1. In Bruen, the High Court held that when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct from any interference by a state or federal legislature. To overcome that presumption, the government must justify its attempt at imposing a regulation by demonstrating that its proposed legislation is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, as ....

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