Although [Judge Roger] Benitez’s detailed analysis of Second Amendment jurisprudence should serve as the more important takeaway from Friday’s decision [declaring California’s assault weapons ban unconstitutional], as coverage of the decision has already shown, when guns are involved, the narrative and public opinion prove key. That same coverage proves a second corollary: When guns are subject, the left-leaning press serves as a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
“Federal judge overturns California’s ban on assault weapons and likens AR-15 to Swiss Army knife,” a CNN headline read, parroting Newsom’s talking point. “This judge compared the AR-15 – a weapon of war that’s used on the battlefield – to a Swiss Army Knife [and that comparison] completely undermines the credibility of this decision and is a slap in the face to the families who’ve lost loved ones to this weapon,” the embattled California governor said in a press release.
[California Attorney General Rob] Bonta likewise ignored the depth of the nearly 100-page opinion to intone “there is no sound basis in law, fact, or common sense for equating assault rifles with swiss army knives — especially on Gun Violence Awareness Day and after the recent shootings in our own California communities,” in a news release issued shortly after the opinion dropped.
CNN added to its coverage the statement from activist Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter in a shooting in 2018: “My daughter is in a cemetery because a Swiss Army Knife was not used, because it was an AR-15. If a Swiss Army Knife were used, my daughter and most of those other kids and adults would be alive today.”
The Washington Post, USA Today, and virtually every legacy outlet ran the same spin. And spin it was because Judge Benitez’s opener, noting that “like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment,” provided but a simple illustration of a minor point the long-time federal judge made later: that merely because a civilian rifle has characteristics that are useful in the military “does not detract from the constitutional protection afforded for self-defense.”
But instead of delving into Benitez’s reasoning, the corrupt media constructed a Swiss strawman to torch, ignoring both the federal judge’s analysis and the many press-peddled urban legends about “assault weapons” Benitez countered. In fact, most of the media ignore the larger point Benitez made concerning knives, namely that murderers use knives much more often than they do any kind of rifle.
— Margot Cleveland in Don’t Believe Leftist Lies About A Federal Judge’s End To California’s Gun Ban
