Now That's A Knife

 For three decades, the State of California has maintained a ban on assault weapons. Wags will no doubt point to the sadly frequent use of assault-type weapons in mass shootings over this same period. Their suggestion would be that banning such weapons does nothing to stem the tide of mass shootings. It is quite likely this line of reasoning will evolve into the reason why there should be no assault weapons ban since "good guys" need those guns to protect the innocent. 

Which is pretty much par for the course. Limits of any sort on the firepower real Americans can lug around with the intent to kill, especially when they are protecting their right to lug around that firepower, are met with a dull wall of what passes for impassioned speech. "From my cold, dead hands."

Now a federal judge has ruled that California's ban on military-style weapons used for cutting human beings to ribbons has no equivalent in early American history and is therefore unconstitutional. 

I pause here for a moment to point out that you are reading this opinion thanks to Al Gore's Internet, which also didn't exist in early American history, so what you're doing is therefore unconstitutional. 

"Guns and ammunition in the hands of criminals, tyrants and terrorists are dangerous; guns in the hands of law-abiding responsible citizens are necessary," Judge Roger Benitez wrote. "To give full life to the core right of self-defense, every law-abiding responsible individual citizen has a constitutionally protected right to keep and bear firearms commonly owned and kept for lawful purposes." Judge Roger's reasoning was summed up early in his argument: "Like the Bowie Knife which was commonly carried by citizens and soldiers in the 1800s,"'assault weapons' are dangerous, but useful."

My mind instantly searches for instances in which a Bowie Knife was used to kill dozens of innocents in seconds. Judge Roger wanted us all to remember that in spite of high profile killing sprees like those in Uvalde, Sandy Hook and Parkland, there have been plenty of instances in which assault weapons have been used to turn back invaders who meant to cause harm. 

But if I am following Judge Roger's reasoning, they could just as easily deter them with a Bowie Knife. 

This decision is on appeal. The weapons ban, not the ridiculousness of arguments against it.