United States District Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California halts the ban on concealed guns in public locations. The preliminary injunction issued by the federal judge will be implemented on January 1.
Carney elaborated in his ruling, “The right to self-defense and to defend one’s family is fundamental and inherent to our very humanity irrespective of any formal codification.”
“For many years, the right to bear arms, and so necessarily the right to self-defense was relegated to second-class status.”
“But the United States Supreme Court made clear in its landmark decisions District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. City of Chicago, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Incorporated v. Bruen that relegation could no longer be permitted—individuals must be able to effectuate their right to self-defense by, if they so choose, responsibly bearing arms.”
This is a reversal of SB2 enacted by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on September 26 which prohibits the use of concealed guns in many public places.
Carney slammed Newsom’s law and said, “SB2’s coverage is sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”
“SB2 turns nearly every public place in California into a ‘sensitive place,’ effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public,” said Carney.
Among the twenty-six categories tagged as ‘sensitive places’ are hospitals, public transportation, liquor stores and bars, amusement parks, zoos, places of worship, and banks.
The federal judge said the new law “went too far” — as the “sensitive places” exception cited by the Supreme Court had to do with relatively few, historically restricted places, not most public spaces in society.
The SB2 law is similar to New York’s law that requires people to present a need for carrying a gun when applying for a permit to carry a concealed firearm.
Aside from this, other California gun restrictions face lawsuits, such as requiring gun stores to have digital surveillance systems, banning detachable magazines that have more than ten bullets, restricting the sale of new handguns in the state, requiring state officials to pre-approve ammunition sales and banning the sale of assault-style ammunitions.
Judge Carney added that individuals have the right to self-defense.
“Although the government may have some valid safety concerns, legislation regulating [concealed carry] permitholders — the most responsible of law-abiding citizens seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights — seems an odd and misguided place to focus to address those safety concerns,” added Carney.
