Anger as judge compares AR-15s to Swiss Army knives while striking down California assault weapon ban
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Bryan Oberc, Munster, Ind, tries out an AR-15 from Sig Sauer in the exhibition hall at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting in Indianapolis
(AP)A federal judge has struck down California's ban on assault weapons, ruling it unconstitutional and offering a strange, almost reverent defense of the AR-15 in his ruling.
Judge Roger T Benitez, who has favoured gun rights organisations in previous rulings, described the rifle - which has been the go-to gun for many of the nation's deadliest mass shooters - as the pinnacle of home self-defense.
"Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment," he wrote in his decision on Friday. "Yet, the State of California makes it a crime to have an AR15 type rifle. Therefore, this Court declares the California statutes to be unconstitutional."
He claimed the AR-15 should be legally protected for its "militia readiness."
The state's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom was infuriated by the ruling and suggested the judge's adoring description of the weapon invalidated the soundness of his ruling.
“The fact that this judge compared the AR-15 — a weapon of war that’s used on the battlefield — to a Swiss Army Knife completely undermines the credibility of this decision and is a slap in the face to the families who’ve lost loved ones to this weapon,” he said.
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