HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led 24 other state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief late Thursday to safeguard law-abiding individuals’ right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense against unnecessary intrusions. In this case, that unnecessary intrusion is a California law banning firearm magazines that can hold more than ten rounds.

The district court appropriately recognized that California’s 10-round ammunition capacity limit “denies a citizen the federal constitutional right to use common weapons of their own choosing for self-defense.” In his decision, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez called the law “clearly unconstitutional.” California has appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The attorneys general are asking for the decision to be upheld.

“The district court properly concluded that California’s law unconstitutionally restricts the fundamental right to keep and bear common firearm magazines typically possessed for lawful purposes,” Knudsen and the attorneys general state in the brief. “This Court should follow the Supreme Court’s mandate from Heller, McDonald, and Bruen by affirming the district court based on the text, history and tradition associated with the Second Amendment and magazines with a capacity over ten rounds.”

Magazines banned by the unconstitutional California law are “arms” within the scope of the Second Amendment because they are necessary to operate a firearm and are ubiquitous with more than 500 million in circulation and coming standard in some of the most popular firearms in America. These magazines facilitate armed self-defense, a core component of the Second Amendment. Additionally, firearms with greater than 10-round capacity have existed since 1580 and were well-known to our nation’s Founding Fathers.

The effort was co-led by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and joined by 23 additional states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Click here to read the brief.

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