Attorney Explains California Magazine Laws

so magazine capacity this is one of the questions i get asked a lot um i do have another video on my channel talking about magazine capacity but it's a little bit outdated right now so in this video i just kind of want to go back over magazine capacity laws here in the state of california and some of the things that have kind of changed since my last video and also i just want to address a lot of the questions that i got not only on that video but i just get asked all the time in regards to magazine capacity also what i want to mention is although i am a licensed practicing attorney here in the state of california i am not your attorney this video i'm just trying to answer a lot of the questions i get asked all the time but if you have a specific question i always recommend you find local council to address your question or your factual scenario if you have something going on so real quick before we jump into this video if you think that limitations on magazine capacity violates the second amendment go ahead and hit that like button i want to give a quick shout out to one of the main supporters of the channel and that is usca uscca provides legal protection slash care insurance for law abiding citizens like me and you so if you're considering maybe you would want some sort of legal protection like this i'll go ahead and pin a comment down below to uscca so first let's get through all the legal mumbo jumbo so first we need to address what exactly is a high capacity magazine or a large capacity magazine now the reason why i'm putting up air quotes is because inevitable with all these videos i make i always have people come into the comment section and say don't call them a large capacity magazine don't call them my high capacity magazine they're standard capacity magazines yes i agree but the reason why i'm calling them that is because it is a legal definition here in the state of california if i just throw out all the legal definitions and just throw in the standard capacity language and all that stuff it really defeats the purpose of me trying to walk you through what exactly all these various penal codes laws case laws stuff like that says so one of the first penal codes you have to look at to find the definition of what exactly a large capacity magazine is is california penal code 16740 and so the definition of what the california considers to be a large capacity magazine is any magazine feeding device which has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds so pretty much here in the state of california any magazine that has the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds is considered a large capacity magazine and is generally prohibited and the reason why i say generally prohibited is because there are some things we have to discuss down the road in this video that cut into that rule so next the main penal code that we have to look at in a lot of the cases we're going to discuss later and some of the other penal codes that were discuss later address and hinge specifically on california penal code 32310 and this is the penal code which essentially makes and prohibits the possession importation manufacture sell all of that of large capacity magazines so under california penal code 32310 part a that is the section which pretty much prohibits the selling importation and all of that manufacturing of large capacity magazines part b is a specific section that discusses the manufacturing of large capacity magazines and so part b pretty much says for the purposes of considering what the definition of manufacturing means for large capacity magazines it's pretty much any fabricating messing with the assembly of the magazine messing with the follower messing with the pin anything like that is considered manufacturing of a magazine and part c is one of the main sections and that is the general prohibition on the possession of large capacity magazines here in the state when it comes to possession that is generally a fine and can be up to 100 and there can also be a misdemeanor charge that is charged against you for the possession of a large capacity magazine or there can be a combination both under part a the cell manufacturer importation those language is specifically it can either be a misdemeanor or it can be in a felony under a specific code and what this is considered is a wobbler so whenever you are prosecuted the individual who is prosecuting you the da can charge you either with a misdemeanor or felony and that's going to be important for another thing we're going to discuss down the road in this video addressing a specific case that has arisen addressing this specific penal code so now one of the next penal codes i want to turn to has to do with assault weapons here in the state of california and the definition of assault weapons and how that interplays with large capacity magazines so the penal code that addresses assault weapons or the definition of assault weapons here in the state of california that is penal code 3051 and the main sections you want to look to and that is really relevant to most people when they are looking at configuring specific rifles here in the state that is 30515 a1 and a2 under a1 a semi-automatic centerfire rifle that does not have a fixed magazine meaning it has a detachable magazine is considered an assault weapon if it has any of the expressly stated offending features and those offending features are a flash suppressor a pistol grip a forward pistol grip a collapsing or telescoping stock they also throw in a grenade launcher in that so those are the offending features so if those offending features are on that type of rifle it is considered an assault weapon and so that has caused individuals like me and various other people to configure our rifles here in the state of california in a specific way so that they are considered featureless rifles a2 deals with a completely different definition of what can be considered an assault weapon here in the city of california and that is a semi-automatic centerfire rifle that has a fixed magazine but has the capacity to accept a magazine or a magazine or a device of some sort with more than 10 rounds all right so now we are outside of all the legal mumbo jumbo penal code stuff so now let's talk a little bit of an important history in case law that has developed recently around magazines here in the state of california and one of the main cases that we're going to talk about is duncanview becerra duncan v becerra was a specific challenge to this exact penal code the california penal code 32310 so this case went before a district court here in the state of california and was heard by an amazing saintly individual named judge benitez or judge roger t benitez in this district court case judge benitez ruled that the california penal code which prohibited the possession of large capacity magazines that the importation cell manufacturing etc of large capacity magazines was a violation of the second amendment and so he issued an injunction on the enforcement of that penal code against law-abiding individuals like me and you soon after the attorney general's office sought a stay of his decision and so judge benitez actually did grant the stay and he conditioned it on the ninth circuit hearing the case and we'll talk about that a little bit later but essentially the attorney general's office said you should issue the stay because we're gonna appeal this to the ninth circuit and while we um have it heard before the ninth circuit your stations be in place judgement says agreed but he couched it his stay actually said that for a period of time that any individual who purchased any of these magazines here in the state of california would not be subject to penal code 32310 and this is what became known as the freedom week here in california the time period for the purposes of the freedom week ran from april 1st 2019 to april 5th 2019 and essentially what judgment said is any magazines purchased during that time manufactured change modified whatever during that period are not subject to the penal codes language and that law enforcement agencies cannot essentially charge you for violating that penal code if you have one of these magazines along with this he actually required the attorney's general's office and the california department of justice send out a letter saying that law enforcement agencies could not enforce this penal code against individuals who lawfully purchase possessed imported manufactured magazines during this freedom week and the attorneys general's office did send out that letter so after judgment needs his ruling and the stay the attorney general's office then actually sought an appeal before the ninth circuit so it went up to the next level and that is currently where this case duncan b bersera is at and this case has actually already been heard by the ninth circuit earlier this year the ninth circuit actually heard oral arguments via telecommunication because they were set to hear this case and then all the virus stuff broke out but they still decided to have a teleconference of the older arguments i got to watch it a lot of people got to watch along and i actually have a video you know covering in depth that specific ninth circuit or arguments hearing so if you wanna watch that you can click this link right here but this or argument was for a three judge panel and actually during the ninth circuit hearing of the oral arguments there was a lot of pushback against the attorney general's office specifically on their rationale of why they need this specific language the main rationale of what the attorney general's office has put forward of why there needs to be magazine limitations is to prevent things called mass shootings they are saying these magazine limitations cause these people who are performing mass shootings to have to reload a lot and so it saves lives that is their main rationale but when i was watching and a lot of other people were watching it it didn't really seem like this three-judge panel in the ninth circuit was really buying um all that the attorneys general's office was selling now whether or not they'll rule in their favor that is yet to be seen we're still waiting on a ruling now one of the last things i want to address is a specific case that has arisen out of directly relating to the possession of freedom week magazines now remember i said that the california department of justice was ordered to send out a letter to all law enforcement agencies saying that the possession of these magazines is lawful but apparently not all district attorney's offices and law enforcement agencies got the notice because an individual was arrested by some local sheriffs and the tulare county's district attorney's office actually tried to prosecute an individual named peng yang for the possession of a single magazine which he claimed to have acquired during freedom week now he was arrested and charged with not necessarily the possession because remember when i talked about earlier that the possession of a large capacity magazine under the language is punishable by either a misdemeanor or a hundred dollar fine or both he was in possession of what is deemed a large capacity magazine although he claimed he acquired it during freedom week but he was actually charged under that part a of that length we talked about earlier which deals with the importation manufacturing buying and selling of large capacity magazines and under this the district attorney's office was actually trying to charge him with a felony because remember i said they have the discretion to either charge you with a misdemeanor or a felony well of course them being who they are they decided to try to charge him with a felony and it appears that once the tulare county district attorney's office actually went and read through judgmental's ruling and maybe they even got notice of the department of justice letter that went out they decided to drop the charges because of course they were in the wrong if mr yang actually did acquire that magazine during freedom week he is allowed to have it and he should not be charged under that penal code for violating that penal code so now we finished all the legal mobile jumbo we have covered all the penal codes that address it we've even covered assault weapons language we've even covered the duncanview bacera case which dealt with freedom week and we've also addressed the most current you know issue and has kind of answered some of the questions we had in regards to the actual possession of freedom week magazines in the pan yang case now i just want to address real quick some of the most common questions i get in regards to large capacity magazines or magazines here in the state of california so one of the main questions i get asked a lot in regards to these types of magazines specifically to freedom week magazines is do you need to have proof of purchase if you purchase magazines during freedom week no you do not necessarily need to have a receipt of your proof of purchase or any other type of proof of purchase actually in the penguin case i remember reading specifically that he had no proof of purchase and actually legally when you look at the burden of proof the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to actually show that you did not purchase them during freedom week and that you are not in lawful possession of those magazines so you do not necessarily have to put forward in your receipts or anything like that or proof that you manufactured or modified a magazine during that period but it is always good to have a safety net me personally i kept all my receipts just to validate that i lawfully purchased them during that period just in case something would ever happen i can pull out all my receipts and just shut down any type of case right away one of the next main questions i get about freedom week magazines is can you use freedomwink magazines in your ccw weapon or can you carry them if you have a lawful ccw permit here in the state of california and that all depends on your locality there is no general law that says that you cannot and actually the rule that you are unlawful possession of the magazines would necessarily mean that you could carry them but the issue is every local agency that issues your permits has the discretion to decide and determine the guidelines of what you can and cannot do with your ccw so i do know that there are some localities that may issue permits but they put restrictions on their permits meaning that they have a limit of how many firearms you can have and some even actually put a limit on the amount of capacity that you can have in your magazines that you carry with your ccw so if you're concerned about that just go to your issuing agency whether it is your cdpd or your county sheriff's look up their guidelines and determine whether they have placed some sort of restriction on capacity and your ccw one of the next questions that i get asked all the time is can i still purchase these magazines that can accept more than 10 rounds and the answer to that is no absolutely no anyone who tells you you can still buy magazines that have the capacity accepting more than 10 rounds is wrong the ruling by judge benitez only left the window for that april 1st to that april 5th time period so if you did not acquire them during that period you are in illegal possession of a large capacity magazine here in the state of california and if you're caught with it they will try to prosecute you now the question always get asked is how are they going to prove that that again the burden of proof is up to them but the general rule is if you did not acquire it during that period of time you are in illegal possession of a magazine under that definition another thing that i get asked all the time was well can i go to another state let's say can i drive across the border go to nevada purchase one of these magazines that has a capacity of more than 10 rounds and bring it back into the state of california am i allowed to do that and the answer is no once again under penal code 32310 that would be the part a that would be importation of a large capacity magazine now if you did that during freedom week it would be acceptable because that freedom week and the ruling by judge monitors put a stay to that specific language during that period but if you do it after the fact if you're not within that time period you are illegally important large capacity magazines in the state of california so hopefully that answered all of your questions and everything you would need to know about magazines and the laws regarding magazines here in the state of california if you have any other questions that i maybe didn't address in this video go ahead and comment down below and i'll try to address them to the best of my ability so if you like this video and you like to support the channel one of the best ways to do that is to join the patreon and i'll go ahead and put a link down the details to the patreon page and also another way you can support the channel just like commenting and make sure you subscribe so as always thank you guys for watching don't forget to like and subscribe and never forget this nation was built by armed scholars and this nation will be maintained by our scholars you

Channel: Armed Scholar

Views: 63,601

Rating: 4.9621964 out of 5

Keywords: california magazine law, california magazine ban update, california magazine ban, freedom week, freedom week 1.0, freedom week 1.0 update, california magazine, california high capacity magazine law, large capacity magazines, large capacity magazine california, ca magazine ban, update, magazine ban, california large capacity magazine loophole, california magazine capacity law, standard, high, magazine capacity california, duncan v. becerra, duncan v. becerra status

Id: Ts5xO6VnQeE

Length: 16min 41sec (1001 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020