That is completely inaccurate. I mean no disrespect, but I urge you not to offer advice about subjects in which you lack knowledge, especially in reference to criminal law. That can cause people harm.
I think it would be silly for anyone to take any legal advice from people on the internet, especially anonymous forums such as this one. He clearly stated he had no intention of breaking the law; he was merely asking a hypothetical question.
My reply did not in any way encourage him to break the law, I meant it to be a post to persuade him not to. The quote you reference from me makes my position clear that with most magazines there is no way to prove whether they are new or old; pre-ban or post ban or otherwise owned for such a time to make it a "non actionable" crime. You could very well own a pre-ban magazine or have illegally bought one say 3 years ago and "not be guilty of committing a crime," or "not be actionable in court", however if you were caught; how would you prove your innocence?
I see no harm in my comments, and I do take take your comments as border line disrespectful to me. Especially since you turned around telling this person:
Based on the CA Penal Code, it looks like the statute of limitations is 3 years
To me that claim carries some weight and could cause this person harm from taking your word, for it ( I am not calling you a liar, I believe you know the law). All I was doing was playing it safe telling this person that as far as I know there is no period of time to make a crime in actionable (for something like this there might as well not be) since as I stated with a matter such as this, there is no way to prove your innocence; some mags have serial numbers and dates, but the vast majority do not and I would think even fewer people keep records of transactions or any real paper work that proves they did not commit a crime (or that they committed a crime years ago).
I say when dealing with something that could get you in that much trouble, it's not worth playing around in the legal gray areas, even if you think you know the law, the authorities might see things differently. Especially since there would be almost no evidence to prove your innocence, but there would a high cap mag to prove your guilt.
Thats my take on it (not that I agree with the law, but it aint worth risking it!), say what you want; but I am just playing it safe here. Don't encourage this guy to do something he might regret.