Proposed ban on semiautomatic rifles vetoed by ... Jerry Brown?

Brown vetoed Senate Bill 374, which would have banned semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines and required firearm owners to register even low-capacity rifles as assault weapons.

In a message to the legislature, Brown wrote he didn’t “believe that this bill’s blanket ban on semi-automatic rifles would reduce criminal activity or enhance public safety enough to warrant this infringement on gun owners’ rights.”

The National Rifle Association had threatened to file a lawsuit over the bill, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D). In a statement earlier this week, an NRA attorney singled the measure out for special ridicule, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.