Roger Benitez

Like you, my sleep is often compromised by fears that America's law-abiding gun owners are having their right to bear arms thoughtlessly and needlessly trampled upon by overcautious state legislatures who persist in the idea that the way to combat America's gun violence epidemic is to limit their availability.

That's just silly, right?

But thanks to the actions of the great and good Roger Benitez (a U.S. District Judge in San Diego), I might sleep a little better tonight.

You see, Benitez overturned a thirty year-old ban on assault weapons in California, meaning that the sad, the angry and the fearful who must feather their nests with as many guns as they are capable of purchasing will be able to do so.

Capriciously likening assault weapons to Swiss army knives, Benitez writes “...the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle.”

Exactly what battle are you referring to, Rog? The one right-wing militias collectively masturbate over in which they slaughter any demographic not male, white and Republican?

(It should be noted, gentlemen, that Ann Colter, Kellyanne Conway and Laura Ingraham will be unavailable for repopulation efforts owing to their age.)

You don't have to listen very hard to hear echoes of the former President's speech from January 6^th, do you? It's another lightly-coded reference to destroying a democracy Republicans have no chance of competing in and replacing it with a totalitarian dictatorship as quickly as possible.

Add to it the fact his ruling was issued on National Gun Violence Awareness Day and the whole thing really begins to smell. You also don't have to listen very hard to hear the “Nyah nyah!” emanating from the mouths of oppressed California gun-owners, either.

Benitez lapses into de-rigueur conservative criticism, stating that the ban has not eliminated mass shootings nor prevented attacks on law enforcement officers. I'm not sure the latter was the reason for enacting it, but I'm positive that making it harder for assault weapons to find their way into human hands was at the ban's heart.

And we won't ever know how many assault weapons didn't find homes because of it, will we?

Judge? Let me explain something to you: the ban is like the motion sensor in your backyard or the dead bolt lock on your front door. Neither is guaranteed to prevent a break-in or theft, but to deter would-be criminals. Which is why they're called deterrents.

Look at it this way: locked cars and locked homes are routinely broken into. Given locks failure at eliminating property crime, should we remove them?

Of course not.

Automotive brakes (even those enhanced with ABS) have likewise failed to eliminate vehicular collisions. Do we call them failures too, throw up our hands and say to hell with them?

Of course not.

Because we will never know how many incidents didn't happen because of their presence.

(OMG. Am I really employing reason to address a (presumed) Republican? And does that mean I get 'idiot' tattooed on my forehead?)

Like a coal mine fire, it's easy to overlook the still-simmering rage Republicans harbor over their “lost” election. (If Democrats are as good at stealing elections as Republicans are at gerrymandering and button-pushing, why didn't Democrats steal the House and Senate, as well?)

Given to herd behavior, the Republican electorate surrenders to groupthink even faster than they absorb the latest round of propaganda splashed all over Fox News. Their craven puppetmasters are a cornered felon, who understand it's either kill or die. Prison is not an option.

I once yearned for post-pandemic relief, yet it seems the pandemic and its stressors are fated to give way to a struggle between those who wish to preserve democracy and those who wish to crush it.

I'm so glad I'm not twenty-one.