California judge overturns “assault weapons” ban HotAir

What really seemed to stick in Newsom s craw was the judge s description of the AR-15. Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment.

While I don t disagree with the judge s assessment, the Swiss Army Knife comparison does seem to be a bit of a provocation to gun control enthusiasts. If that was intended as some sort of own the libs moment, perhaps putting that language in the official ruling wasn t the best idea if it can be used against the ruling during the appeals process. Also, I found his use of the phrase homeland defense equipment to be on the dubious side. One of the chief arguments that gun-grabbers use against the AR-15 is that it s a weapon of war. Invoking homeland defense just seems like he s making their argument for them.

Judge Benitez was a George W. Bush appointee and this isn t the first controversial ruling he s delivered on the Second Amendment. Last year he ruled against the state s ban on high-capacity magazines.

The ruling really did stray away from the specifics of the case in a couple of places. Benitez also took a couple of shots at the mainstream media. He said that people could be forgiven if they believed that the country was awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles, going on to call such media claims hyperbole.

Once you make it past the seemingly provocative language, however, Benitez does make a compelling point. The differences between state laws around the country regarding scary-looking rifles has created a patchwork system where the rights of some gun owners are unequally quashed compared to others. While I generally find local control of controversial issues to be far superior to federal control, we re talking about a fairly basic question of constitutional rights here. How can something be constitutional in Big River, California, and then suddenly become unconstitutional when you drive over the bridge into Parker, Arizona?

via hotair.com

Well, I say, bless Judge Benitez’s heart.