“Firearms deemed as ‘assault weapons’ are fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles.” “Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment,” Benitez said in the ruling. Benitez issued a permanent injunction Friday so the law cannot be enforced. The law has been updated several times since it was originally passed.Īccording to the ruling by US District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego, the assault weapons ban violates the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms and deprives Californians from owning assault-style weapons commonly allowed in other states. The lawsuit said California is "one of only a small handful states to ban many of the most popular semiautomatic firearms in the nation because they possess one or more common characteristics, such as pistol grips and threaded barrels," frequently but not exclusively along with detachable ammunition magazines.A federal judge overturned California’s longtime ban on assault weapons on Friday in a ruling that likened the AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife.Īssault weapons have been banned in California since 1989, according to the ruling.
Unlike military weapons, the semi-automatic rifles fire one bullet each time the trigger is pulled, and the plaintiffs say they are legal in 41 states. It was filed on behalf of gun owners who want to use high-capacity magazines in their legal rifles or pistols, but said they can't because doing so would turn them into illegal assault weapons under California law.
ROGER BENITEZ SERIES
The lawsuit filed in August 2019 followed a series of deadly mass shootings nationwide involving military-style rifles. The lawsuit filed by the San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee, California Gun Rights Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition is among several by gun advocacy groups challenging California's firearms laws, which are among the strictest in the nation. Modifications like a shorter barrel or collapsible stock make them more concealable, state officials said, while things like a pistol grip or thumbhole grip make them more lethal by improving their accuracy as they are fired rapidly.
"The burden on the core Second Amendment right, if any, is minimal," the state argued, because the weapons can still be used - just not with the modifications that turn them into assault weapons. In a preliminary ruling in September, Benitez said California's complicated legal definition of assault weapons can ensnare otherwise law-abiding gun owners with criminal penalties that among other things can strip them of their Second Amendment right to own firearms. "In California, murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle," he added. The facts, however, do not support this hyperbole, and facts matter." "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. "This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes," the ruling said. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes," his ruling said.ĭespite California's ban, there currently are an estimated 185,569 assault weapons registered with the state, the judge said. The banned 'assault weapons' are not bazookas, howitzers, or machine guns. "This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of Second Amendment protection. Overturning the ban would allow not only assault rifles, but things like assault shotguns and assault pistols, state officials said. Similar assault weapon restrictions have previously been upheld by six other federal district and appeals courts, the state argued. 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."įurther, a surge in sales of more than 1.16 million other types of pistols, rifles and shotguns in the last year - more than a third of them to likely first-time buyers - show that the assault weapons ban "has not prevented law-abiding citizens in the state from acquiring a range of firearms for lawful purposes, including self-defense," the state contended in a court filing in March.
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