A California federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that Americans do not have a blanket constitutional right to carry a concealed weapon in public, the Associated Press reports, taking a strong stand in the battle between gun control and gun rights advocates.
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The 7-4 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco “is a huge decision”, law professor Adam Winkler of the University of California, Los Angeles told the New York Times (reg. req.).
Their ruling upholds a California law that says applicants must cite a “good cause” to obtain a concealed-carry permit.
The decision overturned a 2014 ruling by a smaller 9th Circuit panel and came in a lawsuit over the denial of concealed weapons permits by a sheriff in San Diego County. “California law bans open carry, so the constitutionality of that ban will now have to be tested”. Under the law, county sheriffs are empowered to define that as they see fit, and some lawmen in more urban counties had rejected personal protection or self-defense as an explanation to support that “good cause” for otherwise qualified applicants. The plaintiffs in this case don’t have a specific reason to fear for their safety in public; they just really want to carry their guns around. The odd part was its admission that the Constitution may protect the right of citizens to carry guns openly.
The court said that law is constitutional, but whether that ruling was correct depends on who is talked to.
Appellants, who live in San Diego and Yolo Counties, sought to carry concealed firearms in public for self-defense, but alleged they were denied licenses to do so because they did not satisfy the good cause requirements in their counties.
Prieto said his county has 308 active concealed weapons permits now, and that “most of these individuals have clearly established that they need to carry a concealed weapon, that their lives literally have been threatened”.
“Nowhere in there (the amendment) does it dictate that people have the right to carry a concealed weapon”, Prieto said in a phone interview.
The 9 Circuit case centered on a challenge to California’s “good cause” law.
But the appeals court majority was right in ruling that no one should have an unrestricted right to carry a concealed weapon in public. And the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Peruta should give pause to activists who think they can use the courts to vindicate a right that never existed in the first place.
Thursday’s ruling “avoided answering the critical legal question of whether, if concealed carry is prohibited, some form of open carry of firearms must be allowed”, said Chuck Michel, the lawyer for the gun owners in the case.
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Typically, people who are being stalked or routinely carry large amounts of cash are among those granted permits.
