This comes from none other than National Progressive Radio.
California Assault Weapons Ban ‘Disrespects’ Freedom, Federal Judge Writes
For more than three decades, California has banned certain types of semiautomatic rifles including the AR-15 under an “assault weapons” ban. On Friday, a federal judge threw out the ban, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“The Second Amendment is about America’s freedom: the freedom to protect oneself, family, home, and homeland,” Judge Roger Benitez wrote for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. “California’s assault weapon ban disrespects that freedom.”
“If the lower courts were following Heller directly … that would be the end of the case,” said David Kopel, a constitutional law professor at Denver University Sturm College of Law, and adjunct scholar at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.
Among similar cases that have been heard across the country, Benitez’s opinion is “by far the most thorough in its careful examination of the evidence,” Kopel said.
“This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of Second Amendment protection,” Judge Benitez wrote. The firearms that the California legislature had deemed “assault weapons” are actually “ordinary, popular, modern rifles,” he said.
That’s good news.
Judge Benitez did a deep dive into the AWB and thoroughly took it apart.
Granted, the Supreme Court can do whatever it wants, but it is going to be much harder for them to reverse this decision the more thorough the opinion is.
Roberts is the sort of Iron Law of Bureaucracy Justice that is more interested in maintaining the image of the Court than he is in any individual case decision. It makes it much harder for him to throw out a decision that is thorough and well-argued, especially when it comes from a fellow Bush appointee.
If the Supreme Court decides to take this case, if California successfully appeals it, it seems like it has a good chance of surviving and possibly putting an end to future AWBs in this country.
My guess is they’ll avoid appealing it then and just ignore it. Give Judge Benitez the finger and do what they like as long as they can get away with it.
Nothing will change until there are consequences.
Toastrider is likely correct. Lift the ban, but put in licensing requirements that will make it near impossible to own whatever the government decides is ugly
SCOTUS won’t hear it. Too controversial and two far reaching for SCOTUS when it comes to guns. Even when it goes “En banc” and the ban is upheld in the wording will literally be “guns are bad”. That will literally be that courts argument. And the Supreme Court won’t bother.