Federal judge again rules California assault weapons ban unconstitutional; state to appeal

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge Thursday overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, finding it has no equivalent in early American history and is therefore unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, of San Diego, found that modern semiautomatic rifles such as the AR-15 are common household items used for self-defense by millions of law-abiding citizens in the U.S. and that those citizens may not have their Second Amendment rights abridged by the state simply because others may misuse the same weapons in mass shootings and other deadly violence.

“Guns and ammunition in the hands of criminals, tyrants and terrorists are dangerous; guns in the hands of law-abiding responsible citizens are necessary,” Benitez wrote. “To give full life to the core right of self-defense, every law-abiding responsible individual citizen has