Gun control

Judge Rules Law Takes Away Second Amendment Rights

California's efforts to strengthen what already are some of the nation's strictest gun laws took two blows this week, the latest coming when a federal judge blocked a law set to take effect Saturday that would have barred gun owners from possessing high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The judge ruled Thursday that the ban approved by the Legislature and California voters last year takes away gun owners' Second Amendment rights and amounts to the government seizing people's private property without compensation.

California law has prohibited buying or selling the magazines since 2000, but until now allowed those who already owned them to keep them.

Allowing the law to take effect would have given thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens what San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez called an untenable choice: "Become an outlaw or dispossess one's self of lawfully acquired property."