U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, Central District of California, ruled this week the existence of the Second Amendment does not mean semiautomatic “killing machines” must be legal in California.
Staton ruling against “semiautomatic rifles with non-fixed magazines” came in response to a California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) challenge against the state’s “assault weapons” ban.
CRPA sought a summary judgement against the “assault weapons” ban on behalf of Plaintiff Steven Rupp. But Stanton rejected the summary judgement request, characterizing “semiautomatic rifles with non-fixed magazines” as “killing machines” which “are essentially indistinguishable from M-16s.”
Stanton’s point overlooks the fact that M-16s are fully automatic firearms, which can fire a magazine-full of bullets per one trigger depression, while AR-15s are semiautomatic rifles, which fire one round per trigger pull, period. Her position aligned with that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who argued 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.’” – READ MORE