‘Freedom week’: California gun owners raced to buy ammunition after court ruling

By Joe Garcia CalMatters 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 disclosed I was just curious to see if this striking down of the law is allowing companies to ship into the state again Related Articles Appeals court says California law requiring background checks for ammunition is unconstitutional Federal judge rules non-California residents can apply for concealed-carry gun permits Gun suicides in US reached record high in Rural schools feel the pinch from Trump administration s cuts to mental physical condition grants Summary finds racial economic disparity in Alameda County gun deaths 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 Various bullet junkies hunters and gun enthusiasts like Young quietly celebrated the th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that may or may not ultimately put a dent in the state s strict policies for purchasing ammunition For now they can t avoid the background checks Four days after the decision gun and ammunition dealers received notice that the in-state background check law still holds until the Department of Justice processes the ruling and issues an official mandate It s unclear what will happen to the online ammunition orders Californians tried to make before that notice Second Amendment advocates have been here before They have challenged the constitutionality of the measure that restricted gun ownership Proposition ever since voters approved it in and have seen a mix of rulings for and against them This time the circumstance is unfolding after a landmark U S Supreme Court decision that struck down a New York City concealed carry law and generally limited how cities and states can restrict access to firearms Gov Gavin Newsom criticized the th Circuit ruling that curbed the California background checks but neither he nor Attorney General Rob Bonta have noted whether the state would appeal it Newsom was the primary advocate for Prop and he has defended the state s restrictions on the sale of guns and ammunition as meaningful in reducing gun violence Under the measure consumers pay a fee for the background check which just last month rose from to per sale But more costly than that an additional excise tax went into effect in for the Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Fund money allocated for prevention schooling research response and research programs That tax won t change under the new ruling Being in a one-party state they re going to continue to push and regulate noted Patrick Jones a gun store owner in Redding And while this may be a supremacy it s hard to get really excited about it because it s just one in a sea of court battles that are coming Jones Fort continues to stay in business after years but the family-owned store has seen better days It s a dying industry he revealed It s not a friendly or fun business anymore When you regulate and regulate and regulate you kill an industry And that s what they want to do in California Gun rights proponents are anticipating an appeal that will keep the background checks in place I m not sure why they ve been so quiet about it revealed Kostas Moros of the Second Amendment Foundation You d think they d want to be the first to say No no we think this is still in effect But that s led to the confusing scenario where out of state ammo dealers had no way to know this Aside from the sheer question of the background checks constitutionality Moros pointed to a high rate of erroneous denials that emerged in the module of the lawsuit We re not dealing here with particular reasonable version of this law commented Moros It wrongfully denies by the state s own admission of people who try and use it And the ratio of mistaken denials versus actual prohibited people by the state s own facts was to I don t think we d tolerate this if voter registration erroneously rejected you one out of times I don t think that would stand for very long Meanwhile in San Jose Young kept an eye on his ammunition shipment s tracking information from Missouri to Kansas on July 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 notice to dealers The two boxes of bullets he ordered arrived at his home on July LOL impulsiveness paid off announced Young who d previously expressed a fear of missing out on the chance at lower prices To be honest I do prefer to backing my local businesses he commented 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 Not all California gun owners and ammunition buyers feel the same as Young however We re so close to Oregon and Reno that people are just buying out of state explained Jones in Redding Besides watching his sales steadily decline over the years he s also seen a noticeable migration to states with more gun-friendly statute I have had a ton of customers that have left California whether it s Tennessee or Utah Idaho Texas all over Often within one day s drive they pick up a lot of freedom But despite his political animosity Jones explained he s not leaving his home state They can escape the tyranny for now but I think you have to fight it like a affection If you don t fight it where it s at it s going to catch you Joe Garcia is a California Local News fellow