Fed Judge Overturns CA's Assault Rifle Ban

[rr2030]

Yep, life sucks here, and I shoot 10 days a month.

And thats every month !

 

[divingin]

Actually the 9th said the California magazine ban was unconstitutional a year or so ago....don't know what happened after that.

Nothing. A stay was issued after a week while the State filed an appeal. Back to 10 rd mags, with the added confusion that magazines purchased during the "Freedom Week" are legal to own and use (of course, it's up to the state to prove that a given magazine was purchased outside of that week if they want to prosecute,so...) Net result: Limited to 10 round mags again, unless you got them during that one week or lie about it.

The Assault Weapon Ban overturn had a stay issued almost immediately. I assume an appeal will be filed, if it hasn't been already. Net result currently: No change. Long term. it *may* look better than it did before the overturn, but it's a wait-and-see thing.

When I saw the title "..good news in CA" I was hoping it fell into the ocean

Just wait 'til the Big One hits and the rest of the US falls into the Atlantic...

 

[cheek9075]

What keeps people from crossing the state line, purchasing a 20-30 round mag and the state being able to state the claim that the mag wasn't purchased during the week you could purchase them??? I guess they regulate this like the secure border we now have. Nothing illegal crosses the border now because it is so secure acourding to the GOVERNMENT, they are here to help and we should trust them.

That would never happen just because it's a law. We know that everyone including the bad people follows the laws and rules. Stupid is as stupid does I guess...

 

[300_whisper]

What keeps people from crossing the state line, purchasing a 20-30 round mag and the state being able to state the claim that the mag wasn't purchased during the week you could purchase them??? I guess they regulate this like the secure border we now have. Nothing illegal crosses the border now because it is so secure acourding to the GOVERNMENT, they are here to help and we should trust them.

That would never happen just because it's a law. We know that everyone including the bad people follows the laws and rules. Stupid is as stupid does I guess...

indeed, our laws and justice system are very dumb.

 

[divingin]

What keeps people from crossing the state line, purchasing a 20-30 round mag and the state being able to state the claim that the mag wasn't purchased during the week you could purchase them???

Come on; Don't give the CA DOJ ideas...

The magazine law here reads that it is illegal to: purchase, manufacture, or import a larger than 10-round magazine.

As long as the magazine doesn't have a date code, it would be tough for them to prove their case.

You do know we also have ammo restrictions: All ammo purchases are done through a licensed ammo vendor. Can't purchase ammo from out of state direct to consumer. Can't import ammo without going through a vendor. CA DOJ was (don't know if they still are) staking out gun shows in Nevada, and noting vehicles with California license plates. Those cars were either tailed or reported to Highway Patrol, and were pulled over and inspected. Quite a few people were cited for the ammo import violations. No idea what the penalties were.

 

[300_whisper]

^ thank god they are keeping America safe.

 

[NorCalMikie]

staking out gun shows in Nevada, and noting vehicles with California license plates. Those cars were either tailed or reported to Highway Patrol, and were pulled over and inspected. Quite a few people were cited for the ammo import violations. No idea what the penalties were.

Hearsay or fact??

 

[300_whisper]

Hearsay or fact??

it does sound like a lot of wasted resources to catch guys with something that’s legal.

 

[divingin]

Hearsay or fact??

At least one or two guys on Calguns (don't remember who.) Other reports of people who had friends.

Also nothing from recently (past, oh, six months at least), but the early reports seem to have scared people into playing it straight, or at least not advertising if they don't.

 

[DRNewcomb]

No doubt the ruling will be overturned by the 9th Circuit and have to be decided by SCOTUS.

 

[Shawnba67]

At least one or two guys on Calguns (don't remember who.) Other reports of people who had friends.

Also nothing from recently (past, oh, six months at least), but the early reports seem to have scared people into playing it straight, or at least not advertising if they don't.

2 guys on cal guns is not even proof of there actually being 2 guys on calguns, let alone illegal search and seizure requiring multi state participation

 

[divingin]

2 guys on cal guns is not even proof of there actually being 2 guys on calguns, let alone illegal search and seizure requiring multi state participation

It's not multi-state participation. It CA LE watching for CA citizens at a Nevada gun show (or shop), and citing them on reentry to the state.

And much like I believe you're a real person, I'm fairly sure there are people on the Calguns forum (or I'm confused on what that sentence was supposed to mean.)

 

[Brians356]

Forum Boss: Here is the 94-page Decision:​

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/firearmspolicycoalition/pages/5381/attachments/original/1622850515/Miller_v_Bonta_Opinion.pdf?1622850515

By John Hinderaker
7 June 2021
PowerlineBlog.com

On Friday [4 June '21], U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez ruled that the State of California’s ban on “assault weapons,” which dates to 1989 and basically refers to AR-15 style modern rifles, is unconstitutional. Benitez’s ruling was clearly correct under controlling Supreme Court precedent, in my opinion.

Under District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), as Benitez wrote, “the Second Amendment protects guns commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.” Semi-automatic rifles based on the AR-15 platform obviously meet that test. Judge Benitez’s opinion is unusually well-informed and bears reading in its entirety.

While semi-automatic rifles are highly useful for self-defense–the opinion documents a number of such cases–the idea that they play a particularly large role in violent crime is ridiculous, as Judge Benitez writes:

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. For example, according to F.B.I. statistics for 2019, California saw 252 people murdered with a knife, while 34 people were killed with some type of rifle – not necessarily an AR-15. A Californian is three times more likely to be murdered by an attacker’s bare hands, fists, or feet, than by his rifle. In 2018, the statistics were even more lopsided as California saw only 24 murders by some type of rifle.

Tellingly, Judge Benitez documents the fact that California’s legislature in 1989 failed even to consider the utility of semi-automatic rifles in self-defense, the core purpose of the Second Amendment. California’s anti-AR-15 statute was a relic of an earlier, and more benighted, era of constitutional jurisprudence.

While Judge Benitez’s opinion did not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed legal developments in this field, it nevertheless prompted howls of execration from the Left. Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement:

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, slammed a federal judge’s decision to overturn his state’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons as “a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians”.
In a strongly worded attack, the Democrat added: “Comparing an AR-15 to a Swiss army knife is a disgusting slap in the face to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence.”

Newsom referred to the first sentence of Judge Benitez’s opinion, which noted the versatility of the AR-15 platform: “Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment.” I doubt that Newsom read much farther than that. He should have. He might have learned something from Judge Benitez’s 94-page opinion.

These days, Democrats demand that Republican Supreme Court nominees pledge loyalty to the doctrine of stare decisis, interpreting that concept to mean that no precedent should ever be overruled. They are thinking of Roe v. Wade. On the other hand, they are perfectly happy to see precedents that don’t suit their agenda overturned. Like, say, Bowers v. Hardwick.

But that is not what we are dealing with here. District Court judges like Roger Benitez are bound to follow precedents from the Supreme Court and their own Court of Appeals whether they agree with them or not. The relevant issue here is whether Judge Benitez correctly applied the principles that have been laid down by the Supreme Court in Heller and other cases. In my opinion, he plainly did.

But the liberals don’t care about such elementary legal rules. They evidently wanted Benitez to disregard existing law and, instead, rule consistent with their own policy preferences. To anyone who cares about the rule of law, this is an outrage. But I am afraid the Democrats have been spoiled by a number of their own appointees who have been willing to do exactly that.
President Biden, or whoever is governing in his name, will likely have the opportunity to nominate at least one Supreme Court justice. If that day comes, I hope Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee will demand that Biden’s nominee pledge to adhere to the sacred doctrine of stare decisis by upholding the Court’s existing Second Amendment jurisprudence.

John Hinderaker
7 June 2021
PowerlineBlog.com
-

 

[AccelR8]

Sure would like to read the Judge's opinion. Been searching a little, can't find it.

 

[Forum Boss]

This was already discussed in a previous thread which will be merged.

The Decision was issued on June 4, 2021. The Judge ordered a 30-day stay, during which the California A.G. may appeal. It extremely likely this decision will be reversed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Here is the full text of 94-Page District Court Opinion:

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/firearmspolicycoalition/pages/5381/attachments/original/1622850515/Miller_v_Bonta_Opinion.pdf?1622850515

 

[Chiquita]

update:

The ruling overturning California's assault weapon ban was nutty. But it may be on solid legal ground

Judge Roger Benitez's opinion, although it began with a nutty comparison of a Swiss Army knife to an AR-15, may be on solid ground concerning a basic point, columnist George Skelton writes.

www.yahoo.com

 

[cheek9075]

Come on; Don't give the CA DOJ ideas...

The magazine law here reads that it is illegal to: purchase, manufacture, or import a larger than 10-round magazine.

As long as the magazine doesn't have a date code, it would be tough for them to prove their case.

You do know we also have ammo restrictions: All ammo purchases are done through a licensed ammo vendor. Can't purchase ammo from out of state direct to consumer. Can't import ammo without going through a vendor. CA DOJ was (don't know if they still are) staking out gun shows in Nevada, and noting vehicles with California license plates. Those cars were either tailed or reported to Highway Patrol, and were pulled over and inspected. Quite a few people were cited for the ammo import violations. No idea what the penalties were.

I would ask for the warrant and then wait it out or leave if I wasn't detained. It's the law right? Wait a minute... no I would claim to cross the border illegal and then get let go. Isn't that the way it works in CA?? I don't live there or even plan to visit any where nest the border for reasons unknow...

 

[urbanrifleman]

I remember "back-in-the-day" when the Dems hated the 2nd amendment>>>BUT L-O-V-E-D the First! Now they want to abolish BOTH because they "interfere" with their world view and YOU should NEVER disagree with them! Oh my Goodness>>>>should you disagree with them, you should lose your job, get kicked off whatever team you're on and jailed in the lowest dungeon!

Dems? Hmmm...

I find this fascinating. Somehow the dictator state stops when Republicans are in office.

Hmmm... Yah. No.

This is some sort of mass hypnosis that people live in, this constant state of denial. I find it genuinely bizarre. Although I have come to understand that THIS is the very root of the tyranny. Half of the people ignore their half, and blame it on the other half, half of the time, which equals everyone ignores it all the time.

 

[bluealtered]

One judge with the ability to think, ... cannot overcome a state full of people who have been taught not to think.

 

[urbanrifleman]

I find it very hard to believe that a judge in San Francisco is standing up for the rights of Americans.

I smell dead flies in the ointment of the apothecary.

The Bolsheviks are inside the gates. But the average American has no idea who a Bolshevik actually is...