Court leaves California's assault weapons ban in place

A federal appeals court has granted California's request to stay its assault weapons ban, leaving it in place as the court considers appeals by the state to lift a lower court's ruling overturning the ban.

The stay issued Monday by the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was requested by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who on June 10 filed an appeal of a decision by US District Court Judge Roger Benitez that threw out the state's 32-year-old assault weapon ban. Bonta argued that the ban is needed "to protect the safety of Californians".

"This leaves our assault weapons laws in effect while appellate proceedings continue. We won't stop defending these life-saving laws," Bonta said on Twitter in welcoming the appeals court's decision.

California's assault weapons ban prohibited the ownership and transfer of certain types of semiautomatic firearms, including the AR-15 style rifle, which has the capacity to accept detachable magazines and certain features such as a pistol grip.

The ban was signed into law in 1989 by then-governor George Deukmejian, a Republican, following a shooting at a Stockton elementary school in which five schoolchildren were killed. The shooter used an AKS rifle, a semiautomatic version of the military's AK-47, according to the National Institute of Justice.

On June 4, Benitez overturned the ban, arguing that it violates the Second Amendment to the US Constitution and that it was "a failed experiment" that "has had no effect" in reducing mass shootings in the state.

The judge also compared AR-15 rifles to a Swiss army knife, which he said is "a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment".

"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 machineguns. Those arms are dangerous and solely useful for military purposes. Instead, the firearms deemed 'assault weapons' are fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles," he said in a 94-page ruling.

At Bonta's request, the judge stayed his decision for 30 days, allowing the case to be appealed.

Benitez, who was appointed by former president George W. Bush and serves in the Southern District of California, is well known for pro-gun rulings. He also struck down a voter-approved 2016 ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines.

His decision is consequential because the case is likely to go to the Supreme Court, where a new six-justice conservative majority has signaled a fresh interest in Second Amendment cases. Some of the justices also have been critical of gun regulations.

California is one of seven states that ban assault weapons, along with New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland and Massachusetts. Washington DC also bans the weapons.