Attorneys for three San Diego residents and one San Diego-based advocacy organization filed a federal lawsuit challenging California’s ban on so-called “assault weapons."
The suit names the State of California and San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee. The case is supported by Second Amendment Foundation, California Gun Rights Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and Firearms Policy Foundation.
“This is a straight-forward case to protect our clients' constitutional rights and property,” said attorney John Dillon. “The State of California’s ban on these firearms will fail constitutional scrutiny for the same reasons that its ban on firearm magazines did.”
“This District Court already ruled the state’s prohibition on the possession of large-capacity magazines is unconstitutional, and enjoined and prohibited enforcement of those provisions of the Code that would have prohibited their possession,” the plaintiffs say in the complaint.
“Both implicit and explicit in this District Court’s ruling was the ability to use such magazines if otherwise lawfully possessed” in legally-possessed firearms.
“Thus,” it goes on, “the prohibitions that attach to the possession and use of a certain legislatively-invented class of otherwise commonly used, constitutionally protected” firearms “are likewise invalid and should be stricken.”
“The government cannot ban the constitutionally-protected firearms at issue in this case,” said attorney George M. Lee. “We look forward to proving that the State’s statutes, policies, and practices at issue in this case are both unconstitutional and irrational.”
According to the lawsuit, California's ban prevents citizens from obtaining, creating or transferring “firearms in common use for lawful purposes such as self-defense inside and outside the home, competition, sport, and hunting.” It says the term assault weapon is “a politically-concocted pejorative term” for weapons lawfully used “in virtually every state."
It asks the court to declare California’s definition of an assault weapon unconstitutional and issue an order permanently barring enforcement of laws barring them on grounds of their ammunition magazine capacity.
A copy of the motion and brief can be viewed or downloaded at www.firearmspolicy.org/legal.
Source: Second Amendment Foundation
