CA Assault Weapons Ban Overturned?
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Remember this guy? Last Friday night, the Honorable Judge Roger Benitez (famous for providing freedom week back in April 2019) overturned California’s longstanding ban on “assault weapons!” This is extremely exciting for us as we are based in Southern California but also for the country — States like New York, New Jersey and California have long created the standard of gun control for other anti-gunner states… Perhaps this could be a new precedent being set to 2nd Amendment advocates’ advantage for once.
Don’t Jump The Gun!
Unlike freedom week back in 2019, this is not a done deal yet and we are not in a period where people would be exempt for having their rifles in “AWB” configurations. So if you’re a California resident, hold off on buying that Magpul stock you’ve always wanted and don’t remove that fin grip just yet. (Then again if you’ve got an unserialized 80% AR build then none of this might matter to you in the first place) Judge Benitez has stayed his own order for 30 days so if the state attorney general doesn’t come up with his own stay or appeal in that time we should be set to see the CA AWB overturned officially next month on July 4th!
Meanwhile, Arm Yourselves With Knowledge
As always, the media and anti-gunners are trying to publicly crucify Benitez by selectively choosing a couple of his own words to twist out of context and use against him. This time, apparently it’s a sin to call the AR-15 a “Swiss Army knife.” Here are some excerpts from the ruling, also covered by the mainstream media, which shed a little bit more light into what Judge Benitez meant:
“The Second Amendment is about America’s freedom: the freedom to protect oneself, family, homeland. California’s assault weapon ban disrespects that freedom. Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for 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 and United States v. Miler. Yet, the State of California makes it a crime to have an AR-15 type rifle. Therefore, this court declares the California statutes to be unconstitutional. This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes. 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.”
Judge Benitez also later mentioned knives and referenced their statistics of being used in murders in California were seven times higher and more often than murder by rifle. But no one ever talks about that little known fact. Maybe it’s a good thing they don’t for now or they might turn us into the next Britain; with regard to their gun and knife laws.
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