Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta, second from left, standing with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, and other lawmakers. (RICH PEDRONCELLI AP PHOTO)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 1:26 PM PT – Thursday, June 10, 2021
Officials in California have announced an appeal to last week’s ruling by a federal judge, which overturned the state’s assault weapons ban. In a press conference on Thursday, the state’s Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) announced a plan to appeal the ruling that legalized the ownership of assault weapons.
Bonta slammed Judge Roger Benitez, who made the decision to overturn the ban that has been in effect since 1989. The judge argued the ban denied California residents of their Second Amendment right and asserted these weapons were used for legal protection purposes.
#BREAKING: We’ve appealed the district court’s decision that overturned CA’s decades-old assault weapons ban.
Equating firearms that have been used in many of the deadliest mass shootings in this country with Swiss Army knives has no basis in law or fact.https://t.co/treOYf3vsr
— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) June 10, 2021
Bonta claimed the ruling was “disturbing” and called on Californians to do their part to reduce gun violence in the Golden State. He vowed to fight for the safety of residents by continuing to advocate for common-sense gun laws.
He went on to say, “I think we can agree the decision was disappointing and the reasoning, such as equating assault weapons to swiss-army knives, and false claims that COVID-19 killed more people than mass shootings was shocking.”
Bonta’s comments come a week after a California district court ruled the state’s longtime ban on assault weapons to be unconstitutional.
