New laws may make criminals of previously law-abiding gun owners.
California has been the hotbed of gun control debate for several years now. This weekend, a glut of new gun laws go into effect, and it's causing quite a bit of confusion for the state's gun owners.
Mainly because some may not realize the laws may make them into criminals when they go into effect on July 1. The big thing right now is a ban on magazines with a capacity over 10 rounds.
Hear more about this issue in the video by the Sacramento Bee below. This affects more than just gun owners, it also affects the sellers.
While many of these magazines with a capacity over 10 rounds were previously grandfathered in, Proposition 63, which passed last year, changes all that. Those who own them are now required to turn them in to law enforcement, destroy them, or move them out of state.
But the Sacramento Bee reports many are holding onto their magazines in hopes lawsuits challenging the ban will change things. The state's six million gun owners may get a reprieve if a federal judge decides to issue an injunction before Saturday.
Supporters of the ban claim mass shooters prefer the large magazines, while opponents say the new law only affects law-abiding gun owners and not criminals.
One thing is for sure, gun owners in California need to keep on their toes when it comes to staying legal in the state. Things change fast. Last year changes to the law required gun owners to register certain semiautomatic rifles as "assault weapons" for having a standard magazine release button.
Just as quickly as the loophole came about, lawmakers closed it. Now bullet button rifles are also classified as assault weapons. Weapons under that classification cannot be sold and must be destroyed when the owner dies.
In the case of this looming magazine ban, some law enforcement officers aren't planning to actively search out illegal magazines.
"We're not going to be knocking on anybody's door looking for them," Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told the Sacramento Bee. "We're essentially making law-abiding citizens into criminals with this new law."
We'll keep an eye on this story and let you know more if there are any developments on the injunction.
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