A U.S. appeals court ruled on Saturday that California’s assault weapons ban will remain in force while the state attorney general appeals a lower court decision declaring the 30-year-old measure unconstitutional. A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the injunction issued last week by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego from taking effect while the case remains under review.
Quick Read
- The U.S. appeals court decided that California’s assault weapons ban will stay in place during the appeal process against a decision that found the ban unconstitutional.
- The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the injunction given by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, which would have prevented the ban.
- The case will be expedited and heard on its merits.
- Judge Benitez’s ruling on Oct. 19 sided with gun rights advocates, stating the ban violated the Second Amendment by preventing citizens from owning semiautomatic weapons like the AR-15.
- The 9th Circuit panel, with a 2-1 majority, kept the judge’s order in check, pointing to a potential success on the merits by the attorney general and possible harm to California without the stay.
- State Attorney General Rob Bonta praised the 9th Circuit’s decision and emphasized that “weapons of war” shouldn’t be on streets, referencing a recent mass shooting in Maine.
- California was the first state to implement an assault weapons ban in 1989 after a school shooting incident and strengthened the law in 1990.
- The state has since placed restrictions on various aspects of “assault weapons,” defined by certain tactical features or configurations that make them more dangerous.
- In 2021, Benitez had deemed the same law unconstitutional, but the 9th U.S. Circuit directed him to reconsider.
- Benitez also found California’s high-capacity ammunition magazine ban unconstitutional last month, but the 9th Circuit kept the ban active during the state’s appeal.
The Associated Press has the story:
U.S. appeals court keeps California assault weapons ban in force
Newslooks- LOS ANGELES (AP)
A U.S. appeals court ruled on Saturday that California’s assault weapons ban will remain in force while the state attorney general appeals a lower court decision declaring the 30-year-old measure unconstitutional.
A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the injunction issued last week by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego from taking effect while the case remains under review.
The panel also unanimously agreed that state Attorney General Rob Bonta’s appeal in support of the gun law would be heard on its merits on an expedited basis.
Siding with gun rights advocates, Benitez ruled on Oct. 19 that assault weapons prohibition deprived law-abiding citizens of semiautomatic firearms like the AR-15 in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”
But by a 2-1 majority the 9th Circuit panel stayed the judge’s order, citing the full appeals court’s finding in a similar case that the attorney general was likely to succeed on the merits and had shown that “California would be irreparably harmed absent a stay.”
Bonta, a Democrat who called Benitez’ decision “dangerous and misguided,” welcomed Saturday’s 9th Circuit order.
“Weapons of war do not belong on our streets,” Bonta said, pointing to a mass shooting earlier this week in Lewiston, Maine, that claimed 18 lives and left 13 others wounded.
California in 1989 became the first U.S. state to ban assault weapons, acting in the wake of a school shooting that killed five children and toughening the law the following year.
Since then, California has restricted the manufacture, distribution, transportation, importation, sale or possession of firearms that qualify under the law as “assault weapons.” Such guns are defined as those with certain tactical enhancements or configurations designed to make them more dangerous to the public and thus susceptible to criminal use.
Benitez declared the same law unconstitutional in 2021. But the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit last year vacated his order and directed Benitez to review the matter further.
Benitez last month also ruled California’s ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines unconstitutional. But the 9th Circuit subsequently allowed that statute to remain in effect while the state appeals.
