CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2023, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“STATE APPEALS COURT FINDS WAY TO
KEEP AR-15 BAN”
There’s a
reason why California has seen fewer mass shootings in recent years than other
places like Texas and Kentucky: This state still bans private ownership of
military-style AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.
Those
were the weapons used in school massacres from Sandy Hook in Connecticut to
Uvalde, Texas. An AR-15-like gun was used to kill eight in early May in Allen,
Texas. The mass killing list goes on, growing steadily, and now stands at
record levels for any single year.
The good news for Californians
interested in keeping this state safer than many others is that early this
spring, a state appeals court in Sacramento found a way around the U.S. Supreme
Court’s landmark ruling that struck down some state laws that restricted
concealed weapons carry to people who could demonstrate a specific need to bear
arms for self-defense.
But in its mid-May ruling, the
Third District Court of Appeal said high capacity rifles like AR-15s, which can
be fired repeatedly without reloading, are “not typically possessed by law-abiding
citizens for lawful purposes.”
That contradicts the reasoning
of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), which has often claimed AR-15s are primarily
used for hunting. No one contends these are not used for hunting, but the
appeals court said that does not mean they’re not “dangerous and unusual”
weapons, which a 2008 Supreme Court ruling still allows states to regulate.
Last year’s decision by the
new, more conservative Supreme Court majority and written by the ethically
compromised Justice Clarence Thomas, did not deal with this issue.
The Sacramento-based appeals
court ruled in the case of Alex Bocanegra, a San Jose man who drove to the
Central Valley city of Manteca to fire an AR-15 style gun at the home of a
former friend then in a relationship with Bocanegra’s wife. That is one of the
specific situations California legislators discussed before passing the state’s
30-year-old ban on many such weapons.
This discussion came about the
time when California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein authored a similar federal ban
that significantly reduced mass shootings for the 10 years it was in force
after being signed by then-President Bill Clinton.
But the California law is
currently threatened by gun interests around the nation who claim last year’s
Supreme Court ruling invalidates assault weapons bans even though it did not
mention them or negate the language of the 2008 decision. A federal appeals
court in New Orleans early this year endorsed this interpretation, saying
specific gun bans like California’s are “not part of U.S. historical
tradition.”
Of course, neither are mass
shootings in schools, homes, banks and stores, all of which have been occurring
very frequently since the 1994 federal law expired without much hope for
renewal by a Congress under heavy NRA influence. One published count of
multiple-shooting episodes claimed 242 occurred around the nation in just the
first five months of this year.
It's possible the California
appeals court decision may not stand even a year, especially if the Supreme
Court takes up one or more cases involving AR-15s and other semi-automatic
weapons.
And yet… even the majority
Republican legislators in Texas, long opposed to gun controls, this spring
backed an increase from 18 to 21 in the minimum age for buyers of AR-15s and
their clones. This was the direct result of the Uvalde and Allen killings, plus
another incident in Cleveland, Texas where five died in an
immigrant-on-immigrants shooting.
So there is the possibility
the steady horror of this year’s early months will move both courts and
politicians to moderate anti gun-control stances at least somewhat.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento
appeals court ruling is binding on most other California courts unless or until
the state Supreme Court or a federal appeals court overturns it.
This may afford some greater
degree of safety for awhile for Californians compared with residents of other
states that often resist gun controls. But only so long as it’s not
countermanded by higher courts.
-30-
Elias is author of the current book “The Burzynski
Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign
to Squelch It,” now available in an updated third edition. His email address is
tdelias@aol.com
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