Gun owners' groups estimate that 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.
Reform groups said Thursday that 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.
But there are plenty of anecdotal indications that the floodgates briefly opened when U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez overturned the state's nearly 20-year-old ban late last month. He halted sales a week later, but says those who bought the magazines can legally own them during the state's appeal.
One Sacramento-area gun dealer says he alone sold hundreds of the magazines, while other stores also ran out.
