A San Diego federal judge has overturned California’s longtime ban on possessing billy clubs in a ruling that alleges the ban violates the Second Amendment.
The ruling issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez states that California’s ban, which dates back more than a century, “unconstitutionally infringes the Second Amendment rights of American citizens.”
California’s prohibition on the weapons typically only exempts members of law enforcement and some security officers from using the clubs.
Military veterans Russell Fouts and Tan Miguel Tolentino sued the California Attorney General’s Office in 2019 over the ban.
A brief filed by the nonprofit Mountain States Legal Foundation on behalf of the men states they wished to own billy clubs for home defense, but were “forced to resort to more lethal options for their self-defense” because of the law.
The California Attorney General‘s Office filed a notice of appeal of Benitez’s ruling on Monday.
The judge, who has frequently ruled in favor of firearm advocates in Second Amendment cases, previously upheld the ban. However, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that altered the standard by which Second Amendment cases could be analyzed held that such bans must have a historical tradition.
In this case, Benitez wrote that no such tradition existed governing the regulation of billy club possession.
“The American tradition is rich and deep in protecting a citizen’s enduring right to keep and bear common arms, whether they be rifles, shotguns, pistols, knives, or less lethal arms like stun guns and billies,” Benitez wrote.
City News Service contributed to this article.