IPFS News Link • California
California Judge Claims that Second Amendment Does Not Protect "Killing Machines"
• https://bigleaguepolitics.comU.S. District Judge Judge Josephine Staton recently ruled that the Second Amendment's existence does not justify the legality of semiautomatic "killing machines" in California.
This ruling came in response to a California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) lawsuit against the state's "assault weapons" ban.
AWR Hawkins reports that the CRPA originally "sought a summary judgement against the "assault weapons" ban on behalf of Plaintiff Steven Rupp."
Stanton rejected the summary judgment request, describing "semiautomatic rifles with non-fixed magazines" as "killing machines" which "are essentially indistinguishable from M-16s."
What Stanton gets wrong is that M-16s are fully automatic firearms, while AR-15s are semiautomatic rifles. Stanton's reasoning mirrors California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who said that "[a]ssault rifles may be banned because they are, like the M-16, 'weapons that are most useful in military service'; and 'they are also not "in common use" for lawful purposes like self-defense.'"
Since the Parkland shooting in 2018, the AR-15 has become the whipping boy for the gun control crowd.
However, the fears surrounding the AR-15 are misguided. In 2017, all types of rifles were involved in the deaths of 403 people. This was a year when approximately 15,000 people were murdered, this includes both firearms and non-firearms related deaths.
Despite its perceived danger, the AR-15 only accounted for 173 deaths in mass shootings from 2007 to 2017.