California’s ban on assault weapons remain in effect after judges grant stay

Police crime photos of assault rifles and handguns are displayed during a news conference near the site of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2015.

Chris Carlson/AP

California’s assault weapons ban will remain in effect while a court considers whether the 30-year-old law is unconstitutional.

By a 2-1 majority, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Saturday granted an administrative stay while the state appeals a lower-court’s order that would strike down the law. The appeals court is expected to hear oral arguments on that case in December.

“We must protect our communities from these dangerous weapons. We know that these restrictions work to prevent mass casualty events and save lives,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.

Bonta stressed the importance of tough gun laws in light of the mass shooting in Maine last week that killed 18 people.

California’s law restricts the manufacture, transportation, sale and possession of some firearms the state deems “assault weapons.”

On Oct. 19, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego declared that the state’s refusal to allow the sales of semiautomatic weapons violates the Second Amendment.

“The State of California posits that its ‘assault weapon’ ban, the law challenged here, promotes an important public interest of disarming some mass shooters even though it makes criminals of law-abiding residents who insist on acquiring these firearms for self-defense,” Benitez wrote in a 79-page opinion.

The judge has…