SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the state's 1989 assault weapons ban, the first such prohibition of semiautomatic assault weapons in the nation.
The ruling, which overturned a lower court decision, will reduce the number of assault weapons allowed in California and make it easier for the attorney general to restrict newer varieties of the guns.
The strongest weapons ban in the nation, the law bars about 75 models of firearms and allows judges to add new ones to the list as makers design modifications. A Court of Appeal in Sacramento decided two years ago that the add-on provision violated separation of powers between the Legislature and the judiciary.
But none of the state's seven high court justices agreed. "For good or ill," wrote Justice Janice Rogers Brown for the court, "the Legislature stood up and was counted on this issue, one of the most contentious in modern society."
State lawmakers approved the ban six months after a gunman with an AK-47 sprayed bullets into a Stockton school playground, killing five children and wounding 29 others and a teacher. Several other states followed California's lead, using the state's law as a model for weapons bans.
Because the lower court had struck down key provisions of the law, the Legislature last year passed new restrictions aimed at prohibiting weapons according to their characteristics, rather than by name and model.
With Thursday's court ruling, a wide ban of assault weapons is now in place. Courts will be able to add new weapons to the banned list at the behest of the attorney general.
"This gives the attorney general the authority to just keep creating an ever-expanding list of firearms . . . that he deems to be illegal assault weapons," complained Chuck Michel, a lawyer for a group of gun collectors and a gun manufacturer who challenged the law.
The ruling was the first of a handful of gun cases the high court has agreed to review, and supporters of gun control hailed it as a major victory.
Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said that at least 120 types of weapons, known as AR-15 or AK series weapons, will be added to the banned list as a result of Thursday's ruling.
The court decision "represents a major victory for gun safety and public safety in California," Lockyer said.
If the court had ruled against the law, "it would have opened a huge gun trafficking loophole," said Luis Tolley, western director of Handgun Control, the largest gun control group in the country.
