But not before it triggered a celebratory frenzy as dealers courted customers in California, many offering discounts amid a mass shift of inventory to the Golden State. The ruling in San Diego by Judge Roger Benitez, who said the sales ban on the magazines violated the Second Amendment, was stayed last week pending a challenge to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The run on high-capacity magazines from March 29 to April 5 - so fervid that online traffic from gun enthusiasts around the state crashed at least one retail website - was hailed as “Freedom Week” by the California Rifle and Pistol Association and criticized as an alarming safety breach by gun-control advocates. James / The Chronicle 2019 Show More Show LessĪ ban on the sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds has been a linchpin of California’s efforts to prevent mass shootings for nearly two decades.īut in the span of a single week after a federal judge temporarily set aside the prohibition, hundreds of thousands of the devices, if not millions, made their way into the hands of state residents, industry leaders say. But, the judge halted ruling now as it gets appealed. For a week, state residents could buy the ammo legally for the first time in California since 2000. Last week, a federal judge ruled that California's law banning high capacity magazines (they hold more than 10 rounds) is unconstitutional. James / The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of2 A high capacity magazine (left) has 15 rounds and the magazine to the right has 10 rounds at Coyote Point Armory, in Burlingame, Calif., on Wednesday, April 10, 2019. The magazine on the left has 10 rounds and the magazine to the right has 17 rounds. Jeffry W.1 of2 Gun store owner John Parkin holds two magazines inside Coyote Point Armory in Burlingame, Calif., on Wednesday, April 10, 2019.The situation has reached a fever pitch during this wave, when we’re expected to function normally even though nothing is normal and none of the puzzle pieces in front of us fit together. For two years, we’ve been spending each and every day navigating an ever-changing virus that’s threatening not only our well-being but our livelihoods. Parents in the United States are living through a universally terrible moment. When mothers feel there is no more appealing way to spend an evening than to yell into the frigid January darkness, something is very, very wrong. Ironically, some 20 other moms who had RSVP’d “yes” had to cancel at the last minute because they or other family members had COVID, Harmon told me. “I knew that we all needed to come together and support each other in our rage, resistance and disappointment,” Sarah Harmon, the group’s organizer, wrote on Instagram before the gathering. They were there for one reason and one reason only: to stand in a circle-socially distanced, of course-and scream. Their goal wasn’t to socialize, drink wine, or even share COVID-related tips. Last Thursday, a group of 20 mothers in Boston met up outside a local high school. Heritage Images / Getty The Atlantic How a Rare Brain Mutation Spread Across America.That first summer, as Republicans settled into their anti-testing, anti-lockdown, anti-mask, nothing-to-worry-about orthodoxy, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, said it was “ like a policy of mass human sacrifice.” The anthropology professor Shan-Estelle Brown and the researcher Zoe Pearson wrote that people who continued to do their jobs outside their homes were essentially victims of “involuntary human sacrifice, made to look voluntary.” Meanwhile, people on the right likewise compared the inconvenience of closing down public places to ritual sacrifice. The immediate panicky focus on resuming business as usual in order to keep the stock market from crashing was the equivalent of “those who offered human sacrifices to Moloch,” according to the writer Kitanya Harrison. I n the early phases of the pandemic, as the coronavirus spread in the United States and doctors and pharmacists and supermarket clerks continued to work and risk infection, some commentators made reference- metaphorical reference, fast and loose and over the top-to ritual human sacrifice.