U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney described new Cali. gun ban as “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”
A federal judge on Wednesday moved to block a law signed by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year that would have banned citizens in certain areas from being able to defend themselves using concealed carry firearms.
The law, signed by Newsom in September and set to go into effect on Jan. 1, would have prohibited citizens from carrying concealed firearms in 26 places, including public parks, playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney ruled the new law was unconstitutional as it violated citizens’ rights to defend themselves or loved ones, condemning the law’s gun bans as “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”
“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,” Judge Carney added.
“They have been through a vigorous vetting and training process following their application to carry a concealed handgun,” the judge continued. “The challenged SB2 provisions unconstitutionally deprive this group of their constitutional right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.”
Conservative gun groups in California lauded the ruling, commending the judge for upholding the Constitution and stopping the state from infringing on citizens’ constitutional rights.
“California progressive politicians refuse to accept the Supreme Court’s mandate from the Bruen case and are trying every creative ploy they can imagine to get around it,” California Rifle and Pistol Association President Chuck Michel stated. “The Court saw through the State’s gambit.”
Michel, whose group filed a lawsuit against California after Newsom signed the bill into law, pointed out under the new policies, citizens “wouldn’t be able to drive across town without passing through a prohibited area and breaking the law.”
“We are all safer and criminals are deterred when law-abiding citizens can defend themselves,” Michel added.
Meanwhile, Newsom’s office released a statement criticizing Judge Carney’s ruling and vowing to “keep fighting” to pursue stricter gun control legislation.
“Defying common sense, this ruling outrageously calls California’s data-backed gun safety efforts ‘repugnant.’ What is repugnant is this ruling, which greenlights the proliferation of guns in our hospitals, libraries, and children’s playgrounds — spaces, which should be safe for all,” the governor said.
As explained by the Los Angeles Times, Democrats seized on an opportunity to prohibit firearms after the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2022 case New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. vs. Bruen, which allowed guns to be banned in “sensitive places.”
Democrats had championed the law as a workaround to the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. vs. Bruen last year, which held that sweeping restrictions on licensed gun holders to carry their weapons in public were unconstitutional, in part because they stripped those people of their constitutional right to self-defense.
The Bruen decision made certain exceptions, including for bans on guns in certain “sensitive places” that historically had been protected from gun holders — such as in schools and courtrooms. State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) introduced SB 2 as a means of extending the list of “sensitive places” under California law.
The law was to apply to concealed-carry permit holders in major metropolitan centers such as Los Angeles but also to open-carry permit holders in rural, less populated parts of the state.
In his ruling Wednesday, Carney, an appointee of President George W. Bush, 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.
Regardless of the judge’s ruling, expect Democrats to continue swinging for the fences and passing more unconstitutional gun ban laws until they find one that sticks.
