A 33-year-old California law banning assault weapons is unconstitutional, violating the right to bear arms, a federal judge declared Thursday.
US District Judge Roger Benitez pointed to the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” and the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which ruled that gun restriction measures must be “consistent with the historical tradition of gun regulation in this country” in ruling against California’s assault weapons ban.
“Like the Bowie Knife commonly carried by citizens and soldiers in the 1800s, ‘assault weapons’ are dangerous, but useful,” Benitez wrote in his 79-page decision.
“But unlike the Bowie Knife, the United States Supreme Court has said, ‘[t]this is the long tradition of widespread legal ownership of firearms by private individuals in this country.’”
California’s assault weapons ban remains in effect, pending the state’s appeal.REUTERS
Benitez argued that the 1989 law, which banned the ownership of high-capacity semi-automatic rifles, such as the AR-15, in the Golden State, created “an extreme policy in which a few criminals can dictate the conduct and infringe on the liberties of law-abiding citizens.”
“California’s answer to the criminal abuses of a few is to disarm many of its good citizens. That knee-jerk reaction is constitutionally untenable, just like 250 years ago,” he added.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a notice of appeal shortly after the San Diego-based judge’s decision, arguing that the ruling was “harmful and misguided.”
“Weapons of war have no place on the streets of California,” Bonta said in a statement. “This has been state law in California for decades, and we will continue to fight for our authority to keep our citizens safe from guns that cause mass death.”
Bonta has appealed the decision.AP
Benitez granted Bonta’s request for a stay of the ruling until the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit can hear the state’s appeal, meaning California’s assault weapons ban remains in effect, for now.
Benitez had previously declared California’s assault weapons ban unconstitutional in 2021, but the 9th Circuit vacated that decision and later ordered the justices to reconsider the case, based on a 2022 New York Supreme Court case.
The lawsuit Benitez ruled on was filed by the San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee, the California Gun Rights Foundation, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition.
It is one of several that have been filed challenging California’s strict gun control measures, which many Democratic congressional lawmakers and President Biden are trying to replicate at the federal level.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
