Federal Judge Gives On Camera Firearms Demo To Show Colleagues In Major Second Amendment Case Are Living In ‘Fantasy’

A federal appeals court judge published a firearms demo recorded in his chambers on YouTube to explain how his colleagues in a major Second Amendment case are living in a “factual fantasy.”

The full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed an earlier ruling backing California’s ban on magazines holding more than ten rounds on Thursday, finding the ban does not violate the Second Amendment. In his dissent, Trump-appointed Judge Lawrence VanDyk linked to a self-made video where he uses his personal shooting equipment to refute the majority’s logic.

“It is so easy to demonstrate the conceptual failings of the majority’s new test that even a caveman with just a video recorder and a firearm could do it,” VanDyke wrote in his dissent.

The Supreme Court directed the court to review its earlier decision in light of the 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association vs. Bruen, where the Supreme Court held that firearms restrictions must be consistent with the nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation.

“The majority’s logic is premised on its assumption that there is some Platonic ideal of a firearm, which I guess makes sense if you think judges are the Platonic Guardians of the Second Amendment,” VanDyke wrote. “That’s a nice job if you can get it, but it should be clear enough by now that many judges (and gunbanning governments) know next to nothing about how guns actually work, which perhaps explains why they would invent such an obviously inadministrable test for guns, but never for any other constitutional right.”