Judge nullifies California’s 32-year-old ban on assault weapons [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• US federal judge Roger Benitez overturned the 32-year-old ban on assault weapons in California on Friday.
• California Attorney General Rob Bonta expressed his intention to appeal against the ruling.
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) also strongly denounced the order.

A federal judge lifted the assault weapon ban, which was more than three decades old, in California on Friday — calling the ruling a “failed experiment” and anticipating strong backlash from the governor’s office and attorney general.

Since 1989, California has restricted the selling of assault weapons. Two years ago, the restriction was contested by state resident James Miller and a political action committee, the San Diego County Gun Owners.

“This case is about what should be a muscular constitutional right and whether a state can force a gun policy choice that impinges on that right with a 30-year-old failed experiment,” US District Court judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California wrote in the court order filed late Friday.

“Government is not free to impose its own new policy choices on American citizens where Constitutional rights are concerned,” the order added.

“Like the Swiss army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment,” Benitez argued.

The court filing concluded that the present statutes “unconstitutionally infringe the Second Amendment right of California citizens.” In accordance with the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, every citizen has the right to bear arms.

Benitez noted that he granted a month-long authorization of the order as requested by state Attorney General Rob Bonta, who would move to appeal it.

“Today’s decision is fundamentally flawed, and we will be appealing it,” Bonta said in a statement.

Responding to the ruling, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called it a threat to public safety and a “disgusting slap” for the bereaved families of those who suffered from gun violence.

“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,” the governor said in a statement.

According to gun-control group the Giffords Law Center, about seven states in the US have promulgated laws restricting assault weapons.

Regulating gun ownership has long been a political debate in the US amid the significant cases of fatal mass shootings at schools and other public spaces.

Source: Reuters