For Gov. Gavin Newsome (D), who considers himself the nation’s anti-gun czar, this was a step too far. Infringing on the right to keep and bear arms is a value he holds sacred, and the governor let loose on the jurist with a childish rant.
In his words, upholding the nation’s founding principles is “an absolute disgrace.” The jilted governor described the Cuban-born Benitez as an “NRA puppet,” a vicious affront to his judicial integrity.
Two years ago, the politician condemned Benitez as a “stone-cold ideologue” who makes rulings that are nothing more than “press releases on behalf of the gun lobby.”
The section of last week’s impressive decision that drew much of Newsom’s ire was when Benitez noted how many more people are killed every year by knives than semiautomatic weapons. These are the wide range of popular sporting rifles that anti-gun zealots prefer to label as “assault weapons.”
For Benitez, facts are important in making a judgment.
“In California, while modern semiautomatic weapons are not rare, they are rarely the problem. For example, in 2022, only three ‘assault weapons’ were used in violent California crimes, according to the Attorney General’s annual report, Firearms Used in the Commission of Crimes.”
There were only two such instances in 2021 and the report showed zero for 2020.
The obviously miffed Newsom responded, “Today…Judge Roger Benitez…tried to strip away CA’s three-decade-old assault weapon ban…comparing an assault rifle to a knife.”
For the governor, it should be a sign that he should focus on stopping violent crime rather than regulating lawful gun owners. But chances are slim that he will see it for what it is.
Instead, it will be a call to fight harder to bury gun rights.
