The resulting shock and outrage gave rise to the nation’s first state ban on assault weapons, signed by a Republican governor. For more than three decades, it was a policy that advocates for tougher gun laws fought for nationwide, and that gun rights activists furiously fought to overturn. On Friday, a federal judge in San Diego ruled the California ban unconstitutional, a drastic escalation of the battle over the Second Amendment in an era when the Supreme Court has been substantially reconfigured by the Trump administration. The ruling — the latest of several pro-gun rights decisions by Judge Roger Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California — will not change the state’s strict gun laws overnight, if ever. But the judge’s provocative opinion, comparing military-style firearms to Swiss Army knives, underscored the growing boldness of pro-gun advocates hoping for success with a friendlier federal bench and a more rightward-leaning Supreme Court.

Source: New York Times June 05, 2021 23:15 UTC