Court Strikes Down California’s Ammo Law: Freedom Wins

Freedom just scored a critical victory in California—a state that’s been waging a long, relentless war against the Second Amendment. This week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down California’s unconstitutional ammunition background check law, finally bringing some common sense back to the Golden State. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that the law “meaningfully constrains” the right to keep and bear arms. Translation: If you can’t buy ammo, you can’t use your firearm. It’s that simple, and the Constitution doesn’t allow it.

Let’s cut through the spin: California’s ammunition background check law, passed by referendum in 2016 and implemented in 2019, forced law-abiding gun owners to undergo a background check every single time they wanted to buy a box of bullets. Not once. Not annually. Every single time. This wasn’t about safety—it was about harassment. It was a bureaucratic chokehold designed to frustrate gun owners into submission, to make exercising a fundamental right so burdensome and humiliating that people would simply give up.

But Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta, writing for the majority, wasn’t fooled by the state’s justifications. She correctly stated, “The right to keep and bear arms incorporates the right to operate them, which requires ammunition.” That’s not radical. That’s logic. That’s the Constitution.

This ruling is a long-overdue rebuke to California’s arrogant ruling class, especially Governor Gavin Newsom, who wasted no time throwing a tantrum. “Today’s decision is a slap in the face to the progress California has made,” he whined. Progress? Is that what we’re calling it now—making it nearly impossible for citizens to defend themselves while criminals roam free thanks to soft-on-crime policies and sanctuary city insanity?

Here’s the truth Newsom and the anti-gun left refuse to admit: Gun control does not stop criminals. Criminals, by definition, don’t follow laws. No gang member is lining up at a gun shop for a background check on ammo. These laws only target the honest citizen—the mother trying to protect her children, the farmer defending his land, the retiree who wants peace of mind. California’s law didn’t make anyone safer. It made them more vulnerable.

And it’s not just conservatives saying this. Even the notoriously liberal 9th Circuit—hardly a bastion of right-wing thought—couldn’t stomach this charade any longer. That should tell you everything you need to know about how far California’s lawmakers have strayed from constitutional boundaries.

Of course, there was one dissenting judge, Jay Bybee, who claimed the law wasn’t “heavy-handed.” If requiring a background check every time you buy a legal product isn’t heavy-handed, what is? Should we start requiring background checks every time someone buys a kitchen knife or a gas can? The logic is absurd, and Americans aren’t buying it.

This ruling also highlights just how important our judiciary is, especially after years of President Trump reshaping the federal bench with constitutionalist judges. Without that, this case might have gone the other way. Elections matter. Appointments matter. The courts matter. And now, everyday Americans in California and far beyond are safer and freer because of it.

Let’s also be clear: This isn’t just a win for California gun owners. It’s a win for all Americans. Anti-gun activists across the country have been watching California as a model for how to erode the Second Amendment piece by piece. If they’d succeeded here, they’d have exported this nonsense to every blue state in the nation. California was the test case. And now, they lost.

The Second Amendment doesn’t come with an asterisk. It doesn’t say “shall not be infringed—unless Sacramento thinks you bought too many bullets this month.” The Constitution is not a suggestion.

This decision is a wake-up call to every state and every politician who thinks they can chip away at the rights of law-abiding Americans under the guise of public safety. We are not subjects. We are citizens. And we will not be disarmed.