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.”
One prominent gun control group said the ruling was “especially insulting” because it was handed down on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Fred Guttenberg, the father of one of 17 pupils killed at a Florida high school in 2018, told CNN: “People are going to die because of this ruling. I am upset for the loss of my daughter and for all the other victims. But I am fearful because I know that there is someone out there right now who will go out and buy an AR-15 because of this judge.”
Newsom issued his stinging statement late on Friday after Roger Benitez, a district judge in San Diego appointed by George W Bush, ruled that the state was unlawfully depriving law-abiding Californians of weapons allowed under US supreme court rulings, denying their right to bear arms.
“Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive,” Benitez wrote, issuing a permanent injunction stayed for 30 days. The California attorney general, Rob Bonta, called Benitez’s ruling flawed and said it would be appealed.
Assault weapons are disproportionately used in crime and have been used in most modern US mass shootings, including the slaughter of 20 young children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, 49 clubbers in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016 and 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas in October 2017.
California’s Roberto-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act has been in place since 1989. Under it, the purchase, sale or transfer of many named brands and models of semi-automatic rifles and handguns are banned. Such firearms have been used in mass shootings in the state, including in San Bernardino in 2015 when 14 were killed.
Nonetheless, Benitez said: “Like the Swiss army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle.”
The state argued that a surge in sales of pistols, rifles and shotguns in the last year showed the assault weapons ban “has not prevented law-abiding citizens in the state from acquiring a range of firearms for lawful purposes, including self-defense”.
Assault weapon restrictions have been upheld by six federal district and appeals courts, the state argued. Overturning the ban would allow things like assault shotguns and assault pistols, it said.
Benitez said: “This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of second amendment protection. The banned ‘assault weapons’ are not bazookas, howitzers or machine guns. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes.”
Despite the ban an estimated 185,569 assault weapons are registered with the state, the judge added.
“This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes,” he wrote. “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.
“In California, murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle.”
The lawsuit was filed by the San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee, California Gun Rights Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition. It is among several challenging California firearms laws. The suit was filed in August 2019, following a series of mass shootings.
Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, said the ruling “held what millions of Americans already know to be true: bans on so-called ‘assault weapons’ are unconstitutional and cannot stand”.
Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a group led by the former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in a mass shooting 10 years ago, called the ruling alarming and “especially insulting”.
“Too many families across the nation have lost loved ones in shootings carried out with assault weapons,” she said. “They can attest to the reality that these weapons are not like Swiss army knives nor are mass shootings only a ‘very small’ problem.”
The state is appealing a 2017 ruling by Benitez against a near-two-decade-old ban on the sale of magazines holding more than 10 bullets. That decision led to a buying spree before the judge intervened. It was upheld in August but the ninth US circuit court of appeals said in March an 11-member panel will rehear the case.
The state is also appealing an April 2020 decision by Benitez which blocked a 2019 law requiring background checks for anyone buying ammunition.
Both measures were championed by Newsom as lieutenant governor – and backed by voters.
This article was amended on 7 and 8 June 2021 to replace some references to “assault rifles” with “assault weapons”, connoting the range of semi-automatic handguns and rifles covered by the 1989 California statute – and making clear that the firearms much associated with US crime and mass shootings are assault weapons (as distinct from assault-style rifles alone).
