I.   

California Large Capacity Magazine Ban Struck Down

On March 29, 2019, in an 86-page decision, Judge Roger T. Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California invalidated the California's decades old 10-round limit on magazine capacity finding that it was unconstitutional in its entirety. The Court's ruling in Duncan v. Becerra, No. 2:17-cv-56-81, makes large capacity magazines legal in California, for now. However, on April 1, 2019, the Attorney General of the State of California filed an Ex Parte Application to Stay Judgment Pending Appeal to preserve the 10-round limit until while an appeal to this decision is adjudicated. The Attorney General requested the court rule on the application to stay by today. Should the Court grant the temporary stay, the 10-round limit on magazine capacity will go back into effect until the appeal process is complete. The appeal would be heard before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

II.  ATF Removes Expired, Obsolete Regulations

On April 1, 2019, ATF published a final rule to remove expired regulations and make technical corrections to the Commerce in Firearms and Ammunition regulations (27 C.F.R. Part 478) and the Machine Guns, Destructive Devices, and Certain Other Firearms  regulations (27 C.F.R Part 479). Included in the expired or obsolete regulations are those related to the ban on so-called "semiautomatic assault weapons" and large capacity feeding devices. The ban sunset on September 13, 2004.  The final rule also reflects changes to nomenclature resulting from the transfer of ATF  from the Department of the Treasury  to the Department of Justice pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

ATF is also updating its Commerce in Explosives regulations (27 C.F.R. Part 555) by removing expired or obsolete regulations and correcting dates, titles, addresses and telephone numbers. The final rule implementing these technical changes was made available for public inspection today and is scheduled for publication on April 8, 2019.