SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – The San Diego County Bar Association issued a statement Wednesday denouncing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s public criticism of a San Diego federal judge who recently struck down California’s ban on assault weapons. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez blocked the state’s assault weapon ban earlier this month in a 94-page ruling in which the judge notably drew a comparison between AR-15 rifles and Swiss Army knives and wrote that murders were far more likely to be committed in California by knives or an attacker’s bare hands. The ruling was quickly appealed, and a federal appeals court panel later stayed the ruling indefinitely while appellate proceedings continue.