Southern District of California Miller v. Becerra, Judge Benitez rules Unconstitutional

[hostak126]

Miller v. Becerra 79 page opinion from Southern District of California Court Judge Roger Benitez has ruled California's Assault Weapons ban is Unconstitutional.

The state has been given 10 days to appeal to the 9th Circuit

Timeline of case: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16069141/miller-v-becerra/

Opinion: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16069141/175/miller-v-becerra/

California AG appeal to the 9th: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16069141/176/miller-v-becerra/

[mazzgolf]

Wish our politicians would talk as plainly as this judge.

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California’s “assault weapon” ban takes away from its residents the choice of using an AR-15 type rifle for self-defense. Is it because modern rifles are used so frequently for crime? No. The United States Department of Justice reports that in the year 2021, in the entire country 447 people were killed with rifles (of all types). From this one can say that, based on a national population of 320 million people in the United States, rifles of any kind (including AR-15s) were used in homicides only 0.0000014% of the time. Put differently, if 447 rifles were used to commit 447 homicides and every rifle-related homicide involved an AR-15, it would mean that of the approximately 24,400,000 AR15s in the national stock, less than .00001832% were  used in homicides. It begs the question: what were the other AR-15 type rifles used for? The only logical answer is that 24,399,553 (or 99.999985%) of AR-15s were used for lawful purposes.

In California, while modern semiautomatics are not rare, they are rarely the problem. For example, in 2022, only three “assault weapons” were used in violent California crimes, according to the Attorney General’s annual report, “Firearms Used in the Commission of Crimes.” For the preceding year, the report announced that only two assault weapons were used in violent crimes, while the 2020 report identified zero “assault weapons” used. Other government homicide statistics do not track “assault rifles,” but they do show that killing by knife attack is far more common than homicide by any kind of rifle. In California, with a population close to 39 million people, murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle.