This has nothing to do with the ban being unconscionable, but only to do with the seizure of property, it's a 5th amendment case not a second .
"Unconscionable"? That may be, but perhaps you had another word in mind ("unconstitutional"?)?
Actually, only 5 pages of the 66 page decision is related to "seizure of property", aka "takings":
B. The Government Takings Claim pp. 59-64
Virtually the entire rest of the 66 pages is regarding whether the Second Amendment is violated by the statute. It's a good read. Here are just a few of the
quotes that demonstrate it's clearly all about the Second Amendment:
E. Two QuestionsUltimately, this case asks two questions. “Does a law-abiding responsible citizen have a right to defend his home from criminals using whatever common magazine size he
or she judges best suits the situation? Does that same citizen have
a right to keep and bear a common magazine that is useful for service in a militia?
A. The Second Amendment – Certain Policy Choices Are off the TableThus, that which the State defines as a “large capacity magazine” will be analyzed according to
Second Amendment principles. This is the theater of operations in which the constitutional battle will be fought.
2. Second Amendment TestsThis affects
a Constitutionally protected right.
It appears on this record to be a haphazard solution likely to have no effect on an exceedingly rare problem, while at the same time burdening the constitutional rights of other California law-abiding responsible citizen-owners of gun magazines holding more than 10 rounds.
But as Heller explains, the
Second Amendment takes certain policy choices and removes them beyond the realm of debate. Disarming California’s law-abiding citizenry is not a constitutionally-permissible policy choice.
[Section on “slippery slope”:]
What is clear from the preliminary evidence presented is that individuals who intend to engage in mass gun violence typically make plans. They use multiple weapons and come loaded with extra ammunition. They pick the place and the time and do much harm before police can intervene. Persons with violent intentions have used large capacity magazines, machine guns, hand grenades and pipe bombs, notwithstanding laws criminalizing their possession or use. Trying to legislatively outlaw the commonly possessed weapon de jour is like wearing flip flops on a slippery slope. A downhill slide
is not hard to foresee.
Tragically, when 30-round magazines are banned, attackers will use 15 or 17-round magazines. If magazines holding more than 10 rounds are banned they will use multiple 10-round magazines. If all semi-automatic weapons are banned they will use shotguns and revolvers. All of these scenarios already occur. Because revolvers and handguns are the quintessential home defense weapon protected by the
Second Amendment and specifically approved in
Heller, and because the average defensive gun use involves firing 2.2 rounds (according to the State’s experts), states could rationalize a ban on possession of rounds in excess of three per weapon.13 Criminals intent on violence would then equip themselves with multiple weapons. The State could then rationalize a one-weapon-per-individual law. Since “merely” brandishing a firearm is usually effective as a defense to criminal attack (according to the State’s experts), it could be argued that a one-revolver-with-one-round-per-individual ban is a reasonable experiment in state police power as a means to protect citizens and law enforcement
officers from gun violence.
The
Second Amendment takes the policy choice away from state government. To give full life to the core right of self-defense of the home, every law-abiding responsible United States citizen has a
constitutionally-protected right to keep and bear a handgun (a handgun being the quintessential weapon of choice). Pistols are handguns. Pistols are designed to use magazines of various capacities and some of the most popular come standard with 15 or 17 round magazines.
Here, there are no legislative findings as the statutory provisions in effect are the product of a voter initiative. The initiative contains findings. But to the extent the findings are relevant, they expresses a purpose that affronts the over-arching ideal of the
Second Amendment.
The rationale [for the ban on possession of magazines of greater than 10 round capacity] is anathema to the
United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights guarantee of a right to keep and bear arms. It is a right naturally possessed by regular, law-abiding responsible citizens, whom are neither reliant upon, nor subservient to, a privileged, powerful, professional police state.
To borrow a phrase, it would indeed be ironic if, in the name of public safety and reducing gun violence, statutes were permitted to subvert the public’s
Second Amendment rights – which may repel criminal gun violence and which ultimately ensure the safety of the Republic.
The same is true for
Second Amendment rights. Their loss constitutes irreparable injury. Perhaps even more so in this context, where additional rounds may save lives, and where Plaintiffs and those like them will irrevocably lose possession and use of their magazines upon delivery to the police to be destroyed, or upon sale to a firearms dealer who will have little market for resale, or upon shipment somewhere out of state. The
right to keep and bear arms protects tangible and intangible interests which cannot be compensated by damages.
The public interest favors the exercise of
Second Amendment rights by lawabiding responsible citizens. And it is always in the public interest to prevent the violation of a person’s constitutional rights.
[From “Conclusion”:]
The regulation is neither presumptively legal nor longstanding. The statute hits close to the core of the
Second Amendment and is more than a slight burden.