A federal judge in California struck down the state’s ban on “assault weapons,” which has existed for three decades.
“This Court declares the California statutes to be unconstitutional,” Southern District of California Judge Roger T. Benitez said in his decision on Friday of the state’s Assault Weapons Control Act ban of certain semi-automatic firearms.
In the case, Miller v. Bonta, the judge said the right for a person to own an “assault weapon” was akin to any other weapon used for home defense and was equally protected under the Second Amendment.
“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 AR-15 is the kind of versatile gun that lies at the intersection of the kinds of firearms protected under District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) and United States v Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939),” he said.
Benitez said California’s ban on AR-15s, which passed in 1989, was not factually supported.
“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 machineguns. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes. Instead, the firearms deemed ‘assault weapons’ are fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles. This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes,” he said.
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“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. Federal Bureau of Investigation murder statistics do not track assault rifles, but they do show that killing by knife attack is far more common than murder by any kind of rifle. In California, murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle,” the judge continued.
In 2019, the Firearms Policy Coalition helped file Miller v. Bonta, and FPC President Brandon Combs described the judge’s ruling as a “historic victory for individual liberty.”
“In his order today, Judge Benitez held what millions of Americans already know to be true: Bans on so-called ‘assault weapons’ are unconstitutional and cannot stand,” he said.
“This historic victory for individual liberty is just the beginning, and FPC will continue to aggressively challenge these laws throughout the United States,” he added. “We look forward to continuing this challenge at the Ninth Circuit and, should it be necessary, the Supreme Court.”
California is planning to appeal the decision, which Gov. Gavin Newsom described as “a direct threat to public safety.”
“Today’s decision is a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians, period,” Newsom said in a statement. “As the son of a judge, I grew up with deep respect for the judicial process and the importance of a judge’s ability to make impartial fact-based rulings, but the fact that this judge compared the AR-15, a weapon of war that’s used on the battlefield, to a Swiss Army Knife 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.”
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“We’re not backing down from this fight, and we’ll continue pushing for common-sense gun laws that will save lives,” he added.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is expected to appeal the decision.
