Written by Alex Hays
On June 4th, 2021, in a huge win for 2nd Amendment rights activists, Federal Judge Roger Benitez overturned an assault weapons ban that has been in place since 1989.
During 1989 during the former Presidency of George W Bush who nominated Benitez and serves in the Southern District of California. In 1989 California Governor George Deukmejian was the first state to ban the sale of firearms on ‘assault weapons’ which back in 1989 were the term ‘assault weapon’ was a different term and not what we classify an ‘assault weapon’ in the new 20th century. The laws behind guns have changed through the 32 year gap between 1989 to 2021 and the term ‘assault weapon’ has changed in 30 years.
The California Assault Weapon Ban of 1989 was appealed mainly due to gun advocacy groups butting heads with the California lawmakers in hopes to make gun laws less strict. In his ruling, Benitez went more in-depth as to how this law was unconstitutional, “This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of the Second Amendment protection. The banned ‘assault weapons” are not bazookas, howitzers, or machine guns. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful to military purposes” he continued by saying “Instead, the firearms deemed ‘assault weapons’ are fairly ordinary, popular, modern”
The leftist media is pushing the idea that all shooters use the AR15 platform rifle, however, FBI data showed The handgun was the most commonly used weapon in murders and accounted for 6,368 victims in 2019. Knives or cutting instruments accounted for 1,476, rifles accounted for 364 murder victims, and “firearms, type not stated” accounted for 3,281 victims.
Lawsuits filed by many gun advocacy groups include the San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee, California Gun Rights Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation, and Firearms Policy Coalition helped this case get the attention it needed to be put in front of Judge Benitez.
This ruling proves that if a law is unconstitutional it can be overturned, even in states like California which is notorious for unconstitutional bans and laws.
