Recent press releases from the office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and a story in the Courthouse News regarding Monday’s decision by a federal judge to grant a preliminary injunction preventing the state from enforcing a ban on gun shows on state property and county fairgrounds give a strong indication about how Golden State anti-gunners will defend the state’s anti-gun statutes.
They will demonize judges who rule against restrictive gun laws.
According to the Courthouse News report, Democrat State Sen. Dave Min, author of two state laws enjoined by U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb, posted this statement on his website:
“Today’s injunction,” Min wrote, “issued by a Trump-appointed activist judge, is an outrageous abuse of judicial authority that will undoubtedly make our communities less safe. California’s ban on gun shows on state property (including state-owned fairgrounds sites) has been a major deterrent for preventing the unmitigated flow of firearms—including ‘ghost guns’ which do not require background checks or typically contain serial numbers—into our communities. This decision would force the State of California to conduct activities we do not want, which jeopardize the safety of our constituents, on our own state-owned property and is the very essence of federal overreach that conservatives have so long decried.
“I am confident this decision will be reversed on appeal,” he added, “and pray that this totally unwarranted injunction does not lead to the deaths of more innocent gun violence victims in the interim.”
After U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez handed down his decision last month in Duncan v. Bonta, declaring the state ban on so-called “high-capacity magazines” to be unconstitutional, Gov. Newsom posted a message on “X” (formerly Twitter), declaring, “Judge Benitez is not even pretending anymore. This is politics, pure and simple.
“It’s time to wake up,” Newsom wrote. “Unless we enshrine a Right to Safety in the Constitution, we are at the mercy of ideologues like Judge Benitez. All of our gun safety laws that are proven to save lives are at risk. It doesn’t matter what laws we pass. It doesn’t matter what the voters decide. Concealed carry. Banning weapons of war. Reasonable waiting periods. Background checks. The idealogues are coming for all of them.
“This is exactly why I’ve called for a Constitutional amendment, and this is why I’ll keep fighting to defend our right to protect ourselves from gun violence,” he added.
Earlier this month, when Judge Benitez struck down, for the second time, California’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” in a case known as Miller v. Bonta, Newsom was back at it on social media, again attacking the judge.
“Today’s radical ruling — comparing an assault rifle to a bowie knife — is a direct insult to every victim of a mass shooting and their families. Californians’ elected representatives decided almost 35 years ago that weapons of war have no place in our communities,” Newsom said. “Today, Judge Benitez decided that he knows better, public safety be damned.
“California’s gun safety laws work and they keep our families safer — today, California’s gun death rate is 43% lower than the national average — and a vast majority of Americans agree that these weapons do not belong on our streets,” the governor added.
However, according to the website Statista.com, California still had the most homicides of any state in 2022.
“Judge Benitez is hellbent on making it more dangerous for our kids to go to school, for families to go to the mall, or to attend a place of worship,” he asserted. “We are working with Attorney General Rob Bonta to fight this extreme and logically incoherent ruling and keep California safer, but we should not have to go get Judge Benitez overturned every time he decides to write a love letter to the gun lobby. This is exactly why I’ve called for a Constitutional amendment, and this is why I’ll keep fighting to defend our right to protect ourselves from gun violence.”
