Attorney General Bonta Continues Defense of Commonsense Restrictions on Large-Capacity Magazines and Assault Weapons

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of New Jersey’s restrictions on large-capacity magazines (LCMs) and assault weapons in Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General of New Jersey, which is pending before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Large-capacity magazines and assault weapons have been used in some of the most horrific mass shootings around the country,” said Attorney General Bonta. “They allow lone shooters to inflict unspeakable horror in a manner of minutes, spraying devastating rounds into crowds, including some of our most vulnerable community members. Restricting large-capacity magazines and assault weapons helps to prevent and mitigate such tragedies. Our commonsense gun-safety measures here in California have a track record of reducing the threat of gun violence in our communities and we support any state or locality that does the same.” 

For the last three decades, California has restricted the manufacture, distribution, transportation, importation, sale, lending, and possession of firearms that qualify as “assault weapons” under California law. Those weapons have specific tactical enhancements or configurations that make the weapons more dangerous to the public and law enforcement and more susceptible to criminal misuse. Data reflect that assault weapons are used disproportionately in crime relative to their market presence, that they are used often to commit mass shootings, and that they inflict more numerous and more extensive injuries than other weapons, resulting in more deaths and injuries in mass shootings. 

In California, it has also been illegal to manufacture, import, keep or offer for sale, give, or lend LCMs with more than 10 rounds of ammunition since 2000. It has been illegal to purchase and receive LCMs since 2013. Proposition 63, which was passed by Californians in 2016, added a ban on the possession of LCMs. Firearms equipped with LCMs are estimated to account for up to 36% of crime guns nationwide. In mass shootings where four or more were people killed from 2015 to 2022, 60% involved firearms with LCMs and accounted for a third of all mass shooting deaths and more than 80% of all mass shooting injuries. 

Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of District of Columbia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

A copy of the brief can be found here.