US judge overturns California’s ban on assault weapons

Three-decade ban on assault weapons overturned, drawing condemnation from the state’s Democratic governor.

A federal judge has overturned California’s three-decades-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that it violates the constitutional right to bear arms in a blow to the state’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who condemned the order. US District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states and by the US Supreme Court. “Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive,” Benitez said on Friday. He issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law but stayed it for 30 days to give state Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal.