Whoa, Bros.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made a major ruling against gun rights yesterday, stating that the right to carry a concealed weapon is NOT protected by the Second Amendment.
The ruling stems from a case in California, which requires citizens to show good cause for receiving a concealed carry permit. Each county in California is allowed to determine what good cause is. In San Diego, a sheriff there ruled that general self-defense was not cause enough, and that people in his county needed a better reason, such as a direct threat.
Residents sued, disagreeing, but the court sided with the state.
“We hold that the Second Amendment does not preserve or protect a right of a member of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public,” Judge William Fletcher wrote in the majority opinion.
The ruling does not state that concealed carry weapons are unconstitutional, just that states have the right to restrict them in any way they see fit.
The court was split, 7-4, with a vehement dissent.
Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, dissenting in Thursday’s ruling, said the restrictions were tantamount to an infringement of the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
“In the context of present-day California law, the Defendant counties’ limited licensing of the right to carry concealed firearms is tantamount to a total ban on the right of an ordinary citizen to carry a firearm in public for self-defense,” Callahan wrote.
“Because the majority eviscerates the Second Amendment right of individuals to keep and bear arms as defined by Heller and reaffirmed in McDonald, I respectfully dissent,” Callahan said.
Critics of the ruling have noted that the 9th Circuit Court has a history of liberal rulings (it is in San Francisco, after all.)
Given the high-profile of this judgment, it’s very likely this could wind up in the Supreme Court.
[Via Fox News]