Gavin Newsom slams federal judge as California appeals ruling on assault gun ban

California officials announced Thursday they are appealing a ruling by a federal judge to strike down California’s assault weapons ban.

The announcement comes nearly a week after U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez overturned California’s 30-year-old law banning assault weapons. In his ruling, Benitez compared AR-15 rifles to Swiss Army knives and described them as “good for both home and battle.” Benitez stayed his ruling for 30 days so the law remains in effect as state officials appeal.

Gov. Gavin Newsom excoriated Benitez at a press conference announcing the appeal, calling him “a stone cold ideologue” and “a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun lobby and the National Rifle Association.”

Benitez, a judge in the Southern District Court of California appointed by former President George W. Bush, is well known for siding with gun rights activists. In his ruling overturning California’s ban, he pointed to cases where people used AR-15s to defend themselves and wrote that assault weapons “could just as well be called ‘home defense rifles’ or ‘anti-crime guns.’”

He also noted instances where “modern rifles” have been used in revolutions, including the revolt Fidel Castro led in Cuba and more recent fighting by the Taliban and and Iraqi insurgents in U.S.-led wars.

“It has been argued that citizens with nothing more than modern rifles will have no chance against an army with tanks and missiles. ... Citizen militias are not irrelevant,” he wrote.

Republican Gov. George Deukmejian signed California’s 1989 assault weapons ban into law following a mass shooting at a Stockton elementary school. Benitez argued the measure has not stopped other mass shootings.

“The assault weapon ban has had no effect. California’s experiment is a failure,” he wrote.

Speakers at the press conference, including Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, argued that’s not true. They pointed to data showing California has lower gun death rates than the country as a whole.

“That law has saved countless numbers of lives,” Breed said.

Bonta said Benitez’ ruling flies in the face of other court rulings that have upheld assault weapons bans and affirmed that such guns are more appropriate for warfare than self-defense.

“The reasoning, such as equating assault weapons to Swiss Army knives and false claims that COVID-19 vaccines have killed more people than mass shootings, was shocking,” Bonta said. “In many ways, the opinion was disturbing and troubling, and a great concern, but we cannot be and we are not deterred by this ruling in California.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 10:55 AM.