Dear Friends,
For 34 years, California’s Assault Weapons Control Act – has restricted the sale, transfer, possession, ownership, and importation of hundreds of types of common firearms. These restrictions are largely based on cosmetic appearance and have little to do with function. Also, since the year 2000, California has banned the sale or importation (and outright possession since 2016) of firearm magazines exceeding ten rounds. These restrictions are blatantly unconstitutional.
Supreme Court cases over the last decade have affirmed an individual’s right to own and carry firearms (and necessary magazines) for self-defense. Any restrictions placed by the state are to be very tightly defined and cannot be random, capricious, or without historical precedent. Despite these landmark rulings, the State of California has refused to amend its existing assault weapons ban or its magazine restrictions.
In two separate cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, these laws have now been challenged. In Miller v. Bonta (Rob Bonta being California’s Attorney General), the Assault Weapons Control Act has been overturned by a lower court, and in Duncan v. Bonta, the magazine ban was also overturned. Both these cases now wait for a ruling from the Ninth Circuit.
This week I was very pleased to lead 27 states with an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the challenge to the Assault Weapons Control Act. I was also privileged to co-author the Amicus brief in the case against California’s 10-round magazine ban with my fellow Attorney General Austin Knudson from Montana, and 23 other Attorneys General from across the nation. These are wonderful opportunities to correct decades-long injustices against constitutional rights trampled by a state government.
The Second Amendment is a key component of our Bill of Rights, noted by the numerical position it occupies. The Framers of the Constitution realized our Republic can only exist if there are people willing to defend it, and that defense takes more than just strong language protected by the First Amendment.
Our Bill of Rights is not a grocery list of privileges granted by the kindly benevolence of our government. The Bill of Rights are shackles placed upon government itself, describing their limitations in plain language. It is shameful that some state governments see the Bill of Rights as a roadblock. Instead, states and their elected officials should protect those rights at all costs. It is their obligation – their sacred responsibility – to their citizens.
Some will question why Idaho should care about California. A violation of the Constitution in California is no less an affront to our Republic and to citizens everywhere. With these principles in mind, I am honored to assist these fights in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and with the widespread support of many other Attorneys General.
I will always fight for our rights. We cannot do otherwise and expect our freedoms to simply exist in perpetuity. We must always challenge those looking to control us. As our wise founders understood, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
Best regards,
