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A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 7 april 2018

Judge: Assault weapons ban doesn't violate 2nd Amendment

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER war."
BOSTON (AP) — Assault "Strong gun laws save lives,
weapons and large-ca- and we will not be intimi-
pacity magazines are not dated by the gun lobby in
protected by the Second our efforts to end the sale
Amendment, a federal of assault weapons and
judge said in a ruling Friday protect our communities
upholding Massachusetts' and schools," Healey, a
ban on the weapons. Democrat, said in a state-
U.S. District Judge William ment. "Families across the
Young dismissed a lawsuit country should take heart
challenging the 20-year- in this victory."
old ban, saying assault AR-15 assault-style rifles
weapons are military fire- are under increased scru-
arms that fall beyond the tiny because of their use in
reach of the constitutional several recent mass shoot-
right to "bear arms." ings, including the February
Regulation of the weapons massacre at a Florida high
is a matter of policy, not for school that left 17 people
the courts, he said. dead.
"Other states are equally The Gun Owners Gun
free to leave them unreg- Owners' Action League of In this April 10, 2013 file photo, craftsman Veetek Witkowski holds a newly assembled AR-15 rifle
ulated and available to Massachusetts and other at the Stag Arms company in New Britain, Conn.
their law-abiding citizens," groups that filed the law- Associated Press
Young said. "These policy suit argued that the AR-15
matters are simply not of cannot be considered a along with large capacity on ban, including copies ons they claimed complied
constitutional moment. "military weapon" because magazines, are simply not of the Colt AR-15 and the with the law.
Americans are not afraid it cannot fire in fully auto- weapons within the original Kalashnikov AK-47. The Massachusetts assault
of bumptious, raucous and matic mode. meaning of the individual Healey's stepped-up en- weapons ban mirrors the
robust debate about these But Young dismissed that constitutional right to 'bear forcement followed the federal ban that expired in
matters. We call it democ- argument, noting that the arms,'" Young wrote. shooting rampage at a 2004. It prohibits the sale of
racy." semi-automatic AR-15's de- Young also upheld Healey's nightclub in Orlando, Flor- specific and name-brand
State Attorney General sign is based on guns "that 2016 enforcement notice ida, that killed 49 patrons. weapons and explicitly
Maura Healey said the rul- were first manufactured for to gun sellers and manu- She said at the time that bans copies or duplicates
ing "vindicates the right of military purposes" and that facturers clarifying what gun manufacturers were of those weapons. “Every-
the people of Massachu- the AR-15 is "common and constitutes a "copy" or "du- circumventing Massachu- one in the state should be
setts to protect themselves well-known in the military." plicate" weapon under the setts' ban by selling copy- really concerned about
from these weapons of "The AR-15 and its analogs, state's 1998 assault weap- cat versions of the weap- that,” Wallace said.q

Metal object in fatal police

shooting was a welding torch

NEW YORK (AP) — Witnesses if it was a gun, the caller nights of protests by peo-
who called New York City said, "I don't know if it's a ple who said police should
police to report that a man gun, ma'am. It seems like a have known Vassell suf-
was menacing people with gun. It's silver." fered from mental illness.
a gun before police killed Police said the metal ob- The police department has
him were terrified but also ject Saheed Vassell was released surveillance vid-
uncertain whether the ob- pointing at people was ac- eos and 911 transcripts to
ject the man had really tually the head of a weld- back up the department's
This photo provided by the New York Police Department shows was a gun, 911 transcripts ing torch. position that the officers
a metal object at the scene where police officers fatally shot released Friday show.One Officers responding to the who responded to the 911
a man who was reported to be threatening people with a gun, caller Wednesday said, 911 calls fired 10 shots at calls had reason to believe
which turned out to be a metal pipe that police mistook for a "He's pointing a silver thing the 34-year-old Vassell, kill- Vassell posed a deadly
firearm, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. in a lady's face." ing him. threat.
Associated Press
When the dispatcher asked The shooting sparked two q