DC Just Lost Its Magazine Ban and California Is Next in These Trump Legal Warriors’ Sights

Muriel Bowser spent years making it a felony to own the magazines that come standard in millions of American handguns.

A court just told her that was unconstitutional the whole time.

And what she does next could accelerate the collapse of magazine bans from Sacramento to Trenton.

How a Second Amendment Ruling Just Made the Magazine Ban Unconstitutional

DC's ban made it a felony – punishable by three years in prison and a $12,500 fine – to own any magazine holding more than ten rounds.

The case began when DC police stopped Tyree Benson and found him with a 9mm handgun equipped with a 30-round magazine.

Benson challenged the ban on Second Amendment grounds.

Here's where it gets important: under Biden, the Justice Department prosecuted Benson and defended the ban in court.

Under Trump, the DOJ flipped entirely.

Pam Bondi’s record on the Second Amendment is pretty abysmal, as Florida attorney general she backed the state’s post-Parkland Red Flag gun law and implemented age-based restrictions on gun sales on adults.  

Fortunately, Trump’s White House Counsel David Warrington is rock solid.  

In fact, as the New York Times reported, Warrington “helped found the National Association for Gun Rights for firearm enthusiasts who thought the National Rifle Association was too moderate.”

And his former law partner Harmeet Dhillon joined him in the administration as Trump’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

In December, Dhillon announced that her agency had opened a new Second Amendment enforcement section.

"For the first time, the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the DOJ at large will be protecting and advancing our citizens' right to bear arms as part of our civil rights work,” Dhillon boasted over the news.

The Trump DOJ team looked at DC's ban, told the court it violated the Second Amendment, and left Bowser's city government to fight alone.

It lost.

Judge Joshua Deahl, a Trump appointee, wrote the majority opinion and delivered a ruling that Second Amendment advocates have been waiting years to see.

"Magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition are ubiquitous in our country, numbering in the hundreds of millions, accounting for about half of the magazines in the hands of our citizenry, and they come standard with the most popular firearms sold in America today," Deahl wrote.

Under the Supreme Court's landmark rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), the government cannot ban arms in common use by law-abiding Americans – period.

No exceptions for unpopularity, no carveouts for things Democrats decide are "too dangerous."

The court also demolished DC's argument that magazines aren't protected "arms" – they're just accessories.

That argument, the court explained, would let the government ban firing pins, triggers, and any other component until a firearm becomes legally useless.

Heller doesn't allow that kind of backdoor elimination of the Second Amendment.

The lone dissenter was Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, a Bill Clinton appointee, who argued that 30-round magazines are "particularly lethal" and not commonly used for self-defense.

The majority didn't buy it.

Muriel Bowser Lost and the California Magazine Ban Is the Next Domino

Benson's convictions were reversed – not just on the magazine charge but on the related firearms charges too, because those charges only existed because Bowser's ban made it impossible for him to legally register his firearm in the first place.

For two decades, Democrats in blue cities and states have been running the same play: ban the standard magazines that come with popular firearms, call them "high capacity," and prosecute gun owners for owning what the factory shipped.

This ruling guts the legal foundation of that strategy.

Bowser made her position on guns clear years ago – she once said flat out "I don't like guns" as her justification for DC's restrictive laws.

Now a Trump-appointed judge has made clear that her personal preferences don't override the Constitution.

California is the immediate next domino.

The California magazine ban – challenged in Duncan v. Bonta – has been sitting in front of the Supreme Court on a certiorari petition for months.

SCOTUS has relisted the case for conference repeatedly, signaling the justices are watching the landscape carefully before acting.

Judge Deahl's majority opinion specifically takes on and rejects the Ninth Circuit's reasoning in Duncan – the very reasoning California is depending on to keep its ban alive.

New Jersey, Colorado, and Virginia are all running the same ban.

All of them are now on shakier legal ground than they were yesterday.

Second Amendment Foundation attorney Kostas Moros put it plainly: the DOJ decision to abandon DC's ban was a key factor in this ruling, and the same DOJ is now actively fighting gun bans across the country.

This is what a pro-Second Amendment administration actually looks like in practice – not speeches, not promises, but showing up in court and winning.

Sources:

• AWR Hawkins, "Three-Judge Court of Appeals Panel Strikes Down DC Magazine Ban," Breitbart, March 6, 2026.
• Dave Workman, "D.C. Court of Appeals Rules District's Mag Ban Unconstitutional," The Gun Mag, March 6, 2026.
• Cam Edwards, "DC Court Strikes a Blow for Freedom by Striking Down Magazine Ban," Bearing Arms, March 6, 2026.
• Stephen Gutowski, "DC's Highest Court Strikes Down Ammo Magazine Ban," The Reload, March 6, 2026.
• Benson v. United States, DC Court of Appeals, Case No. 23-CV-0541, March 6, 2026.
• Paul Bedard, "D.C. Mayor's Reason for Gun Control: 'I Don't Like Guns,'" Washington Examiner, November 4, 2023.