CA judge reverses ban on AR-15s

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Too lazy to post a link, but it happened. Seems we're still in Trump world. Where else would California be a state promoting more guns as a solution. Doubt it can happen, but I hope this judge can be held accountable for CA's next AR-15 mass shooting, which should be any day now.

 

[lizkat]

Too lazy to post a link, but it happened. Seems we're still in Trump world. Where else would California be a state promoting more guns as a solution. Doubt it can happen, but I hope this judge can be held accountable for CA's next AR-15 mass shooting, which should be any day now.

Link worth posting maybe only bc the judge likens the AR-15 to "a Swiss Army knife." Just... wow.

Federal judge overturns California's ban on assault weapons and likens AR-15 to Swiss Army knife

A federal judge overturned California's longtime ban on assault weapons on Friday in a ruling that likened the AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife.

www.cnn.com

"Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment," Benitez said in the ruling. "Firearms deemed as 'assault weapons' are fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles."

In his ruling, the judge also criticized the news media, writing, "One is to be forgiven if one is persuaded by news media and others that the nation is awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles. The facts, however, do not support this hyperbole, and facts matter."

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Link worth posting maybe only bc the judge likens the AR-15 to "a Swiss Army knife." Just... wow.

Federal judge overturns California's ban on assault weapons and likens AR-15 to Swiss Army knife

A federal judge overturned California's longtime ban on assault weapons on Friday in a ruling that likened the AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife.

www.cnn.com

If this guy was a judge in 1946 Germany he'd probably go "We're going to go back to gassing Jews. I'm still not convinced they aren't the source of all our problems."

 

[lizkat]

Yeah I can't believe how lazy this guy was in formulating his gift-wrapped ruling for the gun lobby.

Sure everyone should have a "popular, modern rifle" stashed somewhere in their split ranch or their walk-up flat, just in case it's time to defend the homeland against another set of militant-hijacked commercial airplanes aimed at the more iiconic pieces of real estate in the neighborhood.

All this ritualized, knee-jerk take by Republican pols or conservative judges on matters related to the 2nd Amendment just turns the USA more towards becoming one of the third-world countries where the ability to create mayhem with guns is seen as just a means to survival, and every kid over the age of seven knows how to use an assault weapon.

In a country like the United States of today, that may seem an implausible destination. But to ignore our wealth inequality and the systemic processes that daily continue to widen it (and which are reflected in stats like not just gun violence but things like higher infant and maternal mortality rates) is to hasten our decline as a society and nation.

Third world status is an option for any country that just gives up on itself as a nation. Ignoring problems instead of trying to address them is caving into disorder as a way of life. That tends to involve using guns to restore order, but order like that is a tenuous thing and is subject eventually only to more disorder unless a political settlement is set as a goal and worked at cooperatively. Lately we seem not interested in political settlements with each other across major party aisles. Maybe we don't look hard enough at the costs of not trying harder. Maybe we should all read more international news and so spare ourselves blind reenactments of the tribulations of other countries en route to becoming failed states.

 

[SuperMatt]

Yeah I can't believe how lazy this guy was in formulating his gift-wrapped ruling for the gun lobby.

Sure everyone should have a "popular, modern rifle" stashed somewhere in their split ranch or their walk-up flat, just in case it's time to defend the homeland against another set of militant-hijacked commercial airplanes aimed at the more iiconic pieces of real estate in the neighborhood.

All this ritualized, knee-jerk take by Republican pols or conservative judges on matters related to the 2nd Amendment just turns the USA more towards becoming one of the third-world countries where the ability to create mayhem with guns is seen as just a means to survival, and every kid over the age of seven knows how to use an assault weapon.

In a country like the United States of today, that may seem an implausible destination. But to ignore our wealth inequality and the systemic processes that daily continue to widen it (and which are reflected in stats like not just gun violence but things like higher infant and maternal mortality rates) is to hasten our decline as a society and nation.

Third world status is an option for any country that just gives up on itself as a nation. Ignoring problems instead of trying to address them is caving into disorder as a way of life. That tends to involve using guns to restore order, but order like that is a tenuous thing and is subject eventually only to more disorder unless a political settlement is set as a goal and worked at cooperatively. Lately we seem not interested in political settlements with each other across major party aisles. Maybe we don't look hard enough at the costs of not trying harder. Maybe we should all read more international news and so spare ourselves blind reenactments of the tribulations of other countries en route to becoming failed states.

The amount of right-wing talking points in the ruling should prevent this ruling from standing up to an appeal. Really, overturning a 30+ year old law by quoting the NRA playbook? Come on man…