This should make for some interesting apoplexy in the People’s Republik Of California
U.S. judge overturns California’s ban on assault weapons
A federal judge Friday overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that it violates the constitutional right to bear arms.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states and by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive,” Benitez said. He issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law but stayed it for 30 days to give state Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal.
Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the decision, calling it “a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians, period.”
In his 94-page ruling, the judge spoke favorably of modern weapons, said they were overwhelmingly used for legal reasons.
“Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle,” the judge said in his ruling’s introduction.
This has all made Gavin pretty upset, so much so that he won’t give up his own armed protection. And will appeal the ruling
Assault weapons as defined by the law are more dangerous than other firearms and are disproportionately used in crimes, mass shootings and against law enforcement, with more resulting casualties, the state attorney general’s office argued, and barring them “furthers the state’s important public safety interests.â€
They are? Funny how they cannot provide the science on this
Despite California’s ban, there currently are an estimated 185,569 assault weapons registered with the state, the judge said.
“This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes,” the ruling said. “One is to be forgiven if one is persuaded by news media and others that the nation is awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles. The facts, however, do not support this hyperbole, and facts matter.”
“In California, murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle,” he added.
And how many of those rifles are not scary looking “assault rifles”? Because non scary rifles tend to fire the same rounds.
Meanwhile
When will all these celebs give up their own armed security? https://t.co/13ZNvvZ2cR
— William Teach2 ??????? #refuseresist (@WTeach2) June 5, 2021
They’re going to wear orange! So Brave.
Read: Bummer: Judge Eliminates California’s Scary Looking Rifles Ban »