Don Thompson
Sacramento
A federal judge has overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that it violates the constitutional right to bear arms.
US District Judge Roger Benitez ruled that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives lawabiding Californians of weapons allowed in most other states.
‘‘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.
Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the decision, calling it ‘‘a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians’’.
In his 94-page ruling, the judge spoke favourably of the weapons, saying they were overwhelmingly used for legal reasons. ‘‘Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defence weapon and homeland defence equipment. Good for both home and battle.’’
That comparison ‘‘completely undermines the credibility of this decision and is a slap in the face to the families who’ve lost loved ones to this weapon,’’ Newsom said.
‘‘We’re not backing down from this fight, and we’ll continue pushing for commonsense gun laws that will save lives.’’
California first restricted assault weapons in 1989, with many updates to the law since then.
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 casualties, the state Attorney-General’s office argued, and barring them ‘‘furthers the state’s important public safety interests’’.
Benitez disagreed. ‘‘This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of Second Amendment protection. The banned ‘assault weapons’ are not bazookas, howitzers or machine guns. Those arms are dangerous.’’
AP