Federal judge strikes down California’s long-standing assault rifle ban as unconstitutional

A federal judge late Friday struck down California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, saying the law was a “failed experiment” that had wrongly infringed the Constitution’s 2nd Amendment.

The 1989 state law that defined assault weapons and prohibited their sale is “hereby declared unconstitutional and shall be enjoined,” U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez wrote in a ruling certain to send shockwaves through the gun rights debate in America,

Benitez wrote that the law was “a 30-year-old failed experiment” that had infringed on “what should be a muscular constitutional right.”

“Government is not free to impose its own new policy choices on American citizens where constitutional rights are concerned,” added Benitez, an appointee of former President George W. Bush  

Gov. Gavin Newsom ripped the decision as a a “direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians.”

The judge granted a 30-day stay to give California Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal.