Jon writes: > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [Volokh] Eugene Volokh: California Court of Appeal Upholds > Ban on .50-Caliber Rifles Against Second Amendment Challenge: > > Posted by Eugene Volokh: > California Court of Appeal Upholds Ban on .50-Caliber Rifles Against Second > Amendment Challenge: > http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_31-2009_06_06.shtml#1244002752 > > The case is [1]People v. James, just decided today. Here's the core of > the analysis: > > ... > As the court?s discussion makes clear, the Second Amendment right > does not protect possession of a military M-16 rifle. Likewise, it > does not protect the right to possess assault weapons or .50 > caliber BMG rifles.
Note that this distinguishes between the "military M-16 rifle" (which is an "assault rifle", i.e. an NFA "machinegun") and an "assault weapon". I know what an "assault weapon" was in the lapsed Federal assault weapon ban - is this definition the same under California law? If so - then > As we have already indicated, in enacting the > Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989 and the .50 Caliber BMG > Regulation Act of 2004, the Legislature was specifically concerned > with the unusual and dangerous nature of these weapons. An assault > weapon ?has such a high rate of fire and capacity for firepower > that its function as a legitimate sports or recreational firearm is > substantially outweighed by the danger that it can be used to kill > and injure human beings.? (?? 12275.5, subd. (a).) this statement seems to confuse "assault weapon" with "machinegun". No "assault weapons" are machineguns - functionally they are simply regular semi-automatic rifles (mostly rifles, some shotguns and pistols) of the sort which have been extremely popular for defense and sport for the last 50 - 100 years. So if "assault weapons" can be banned, then perhaps a rather vast category of other semi-auto firearms (e.g. shotguns) could also be banned. A semi-suto shotgun, even without an extended magazine, arguably equals or exceeds an AR-15 rifle in "firepower." Even pump actions shotguns could fall into this category. -- --henry schaffer > ...
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