> The last round of briefs have been filed, and now both sides in the legal fight over California’s ban on so-called assault weapons are waiting to learn what a federal judge has to say about the constitutionality of the state law. Given that U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez has already ruled the gun ban is invalid once before, however, there’s not much doubt about what the judge will conclude the second time around. > It was two years ago that Benitez originally ruled against California in a lawsuit known as Miller v. Bonta; a decision that was stayed by a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit. Rather than hold on to the case, which would have expedited its journey to the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit vacated its decision and remanded the lawsuit back to Benitez’s court after the Court’s decision in Bruen last June. Ostensibly the move was to allow for both sides to make new arguments based on the history, text, and tradition test laid out in Bruen, but there are a lot of Second Amendment supporters who suspect that the Ninth Circuit, which has never found a gun control law to be unconstitutional in the nearly 15 years since the Heller decision was handed down, is simply trying to play keep-away with the Supreme Court on an issue of fundamental importance by unnecessarily sending the case back to Benitez and starting the legal process all over. > Rick Travis, the California Rifle & Pistol Association’s legislative affairs director, is already warning gun owners that even a good decision from Benitez won’t immediately change California law.