Gun groups: Million-plus extended magazines flood California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - More than a million high-capacity ammunition magazines flooded into California during a one-week window created when a federal judge temporarily threw out the state’s ban, gun owners’ groups estimated Thursday. Reform groups said the projections are self-serving as gun rights organizations try to make the case that magazines holding more than 10 bullets are so common now that a ban is impractical. The magazines aren’t tracked. But there are plenty of anecdotal indications that the floodgates briefly opened when U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez[1] overturned the state’s nearly 20-year-old ban late last month. The judge halted sales a week later, but ruled that those who bought the magazines can legally own them while the state appeals his ruling. “Everything was all sold out. I basically took whatever I could get,” said Chris Puehse[2], who owns Foothill Ammo in Shingle Springs, east of Sacramento. He fielded dozens of telephone calls while buyers stacked up 20 deep in his one-man store to buy the hundreds of magazines that arrived in two shipments last week. He had just six left by the time Benitez[3] reinstated the ban last Friday. “People loved it. It was like we were out of prison and were not treated like bastard stepchildren of the country anymore,” he said. Thirty-round magazines for military-style rifles, handgun magazines holding 17 to 20 bullets, all selling for less than $30 each - “they disappeared,” Puehse[4] said. “They wanted to grab more than I let them, otherwise they would have been gone even faster than a few hours.” State Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned hours before Benitez[5] again halted sales that California was in danger of becoming “the wild, wild West for high-capacity magazines.” “There are those who are now trying to flood the state of California with

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