California residents have until 5 p.m. Friday, April 5, to purchase large capacity magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds legally. In an order released mid-afternoon Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez granted the state of California its requested stay of his ruling striking down the state's blanket ban on firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
However, in a win for California residents who have purchased or manufactured (by removing blocking devices in 10/20 or 10/30 magazines), Benitez created a legal safe haven in the order.
IT IS HEREBY FURTHER ORDERED that the permanent injunction enjoining enforcement of California Penal Code § 32310 (a) and (b) shall remain in effect for those persons and business entities who have manufactured, imported, sold, or bought magazines able to hold more than 10 rounds between the entry of this Court’s injunction on March 29, 2019 and 5:00 p.m., Friday, April 5, 2019.
It does not matter if your magazine is somewhere in the mail. It does not matter if it is still at the retailer's and being fulfilled. All that matters is that you've bought it before 5 p.m. Friday.
Benitez's stay came just hours after the California Department of Justice had notified the court of its intent to appeal directly to the Ninth Circuit by end of business Thursday had a stay not been issued.
It is estimated that potentially hundreds of thousands of large capacity magazines will eventually flood into the state of California as a result of this 7-day legal loophole created by Judge Benitez's order.
A MAJOR question that so far, no-one has answered that I can find, is what constitutes "sold", and "bought"? Is it when an order was submitted and accepted by the supplier? Or is it when the supplier charges against your credit card? Some suppliers do not charge the card until they are ready to ship. Given shipping delays, it is very possible an order placed prior to April 5, 5:00 pm may not see a charge against a credit card of the customer until AFTER April 5, 5:00 pm.
Imagine an order for a 11+ round mag submitted on-line to a supplier on April 4, is "in process", but will not ship until April 6, at which time the card will be charged. Can this order be processed under the stay language? If not, there are going to be plenty of angry people who find out their order was cancelled.
Brownells and I think MidwayUSA charge the credit card at time of shipping. Depending on how the stay language is interpreted, this could impact a LOT of people, and not in a good way.
I think you'd have a pretty good case if you have a order-received receipt in your email timestamped before 5 p.m. today. Or even a screenshot of the completed order form and the system clock down in the lower right corner.
I agree, but vendors are clearly interpreting the judge's stay language differently. One vendor I know of read me an e-mail from their legal team stating they will ship any order, including back orders, as long as the ORDER was received prior to 5:00 pm PST, April 5. On the other hand, another vendor is sending cancellation notices to customers who placed an order, but who are unable to ship the order by April 5, 5:00pm PST. Maybe one could persuade the vendor to change their mind, but I rather doubt it.
I wish Judge Benitez would have added the word "ordered" along with "bought" in his stay. That would have largely eliminated the confusion and varied actions by suppliers.
[…] delay allowed millions of standard-capacity magazines to be legally imported into the state before Benitez crafted a stay that protected people who had purchased those magazines, but had not yet received them in the […]