Texas joins multistate coalition asking 9th Circuit to reject California AR-15 ban

 Just The News:

Texas has joined another multistate coalition defending Second Amendment rights, this time asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down California’s assault weapons ban in the case of Miller v. Bonta.

California is appealing a recent decision by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who ruled that the state’s 1989 ban violates the Second Amendment. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the ruling was “a direct threat to public safety and innocent Californians.”

But in his 94-page ruling, Benitez wrote that the California law “bans an entire class of very popular hardware – firearms that are lawful under federal law and under the laws of most states and that are commonly held by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.”

Building “modern rifles” is standard practice for law-abiding gun owners in 45 states, the coalition of states led by Arizona, argues. Calling these rifles “assault weapons” is a misnomer, they add, because they are most often used for personal protection and target and sport shooting.

“There is nothing sinister about citizens keeping or bearing a modern rifle,” the coalition’s brief states. “Law-abiding citizens keeping and bearing modern rifles benefit public safety, counter-balance the threat of illegal gun violence, and help make our homes and streets safer.

Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “States do not have the right to dictate what is ‘necessary’ or ‘unnecessary’ when it comes to constitutional rights, and demonizing certain rifles that are widely used nationwide is an infringement on the Second Amendment."

The multistate coalition includes Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
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These rifles are rarely used in criminal activity.  In fact, knives are much more often used in criminal acts than most guns.  The anti-gun left seems to think these weapons look too scary.  BTW, they are not assault weapons by any reasonable definition.  They have never been used by the US military for combat operations.  The left also falsely describes the AR-15 as a "weapon of war" even though it has never been used as such.