California Leaders Vow to Fight After Judge Overturns Assault Weapons Ban
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Not even a full day after a federal judge overturned California's 32-year-old ban on assault weapons, state leaders were promising a fight. Gun control opponents are ready for one as well.
"Doing it in such an over-the-top, ideological way, it was just a really horrific opinion," said state senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco. "But we're gonna fight this and go to the mat."
There is much outrage from gun control advocates and state officials are mobilizing to overturn the ruling.
"I know that as attorney general, Mr. Bonta will fight to the end to defend this law," Wiener said.
"What happens now is that there's a 30-day stay on the ruling going into effect, which allows the attorney general of the state of California, Attorney General Bonta, to appeal the decision up to the Ninth Circuit," said Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Giffords Law Center. "So we expect that decision will be appealed very quickly. In the meantime, nothing changes in California pending that appeal."
It's also expected that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will overturn the ruling, which may just be part of the larger strategy for those opposed to gun legislation.
"Now that they have a different court, we see how the industry is trying to use that to get more cases back in front of the justices," Thomas explained.
Thomas says there are cases across the country specifically designed to reach the Supreme Court, even if it means losing several rulings along the way.
"Interestingly, since Justice Barrett was confirmed to the court, we have seen the gun industry and gun lobby trying to re-litigate a number of laws and issues that have already been decided by the courts," Thomas said. "They hope that they will lose and that gives them an opportunity to appeal it to the Supreme Court. They know it's going to be a tough court on these issues, and they're trying to get as many cases in front of them as they can right now."
