In a groundbreaking verdict that has sent shockwaves through gun control circles, a U.S. District Court judge in California made a bold stand for Second Amendment rights. What’s more, in the process, he served a scorching rebuke to “Firearms Expert” Ryan Busse, a senior advisor for the Giffords gun control organization and candidate for Montana’s next Governor.
The case in question, Miller v. Bonta, saw the court examining California’s longstanding ban on what the state labels as “assault weapons.” In his detailed 79-page decision, Federal Judge Roger T. Benitez made it abundantly clear that the ban was not just an infringement on constitutional rights but also steeped in flawed arguments and poorly conceived testimonies.
At the heart of the matter, however, is Judge Benitez’s surgical dismantling of Ryan Busse’s testimony. Busse, with his history as a former firearm industry executive, might have hoped that his previous professional affiliation would lend weight to his anti-assault weapons stance. But the reality proved to be the opposite.
As the judge noted, Busse’s expertise seems dubious at best when it comes to the subject at hand: AR-15 platform rifles. The majority of firearms that Busse’s former employer sold were pistols, revolvers, and traditional bolt-action rifles, far from the semi-automatic territory that the case revolved around. As such, Judge Benitez rightly questioned Busse’s credentials in offering an “expert” opinion on a class of firearms he had little professional experience with.
