A federal judge has blocked a far-reaching California law that would have banned carrying guns almost everywhere in public, including at places like churches and playgrounds.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney ripped into the law in his decision, saying that it violated the Second Amendment and openly defied the Supreme Court. The law would have heavily restricted anyone, even people with permits, from carrying in public. The California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) sued to block the law after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed it in September.
Carney said the law was “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”
The judge, a George W. Bush appointee, also took aim at the law’s restrictions of permitted gun owners.
“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,” Carney said.
“They have been through a vigorous vetting and training process following their application to carry a concealed handgun,” he wrote. “The challenged SB2 provisions unconstitutionally deprive this group of their constitutional right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.”
Newsom decried the judge’s decision, claiming that it defied “common sense.”
“Defying common sense, this ruling outrageously calls California’s data-backed gun safety efforts ‘repugnant,’” Newsom said. “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.”
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Chuck Michel, president of the CRPA, praised the judge’s decision.
“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,” Michel said. “The Court saw through the State’s gambit.”
“We are all safer and criminals are deterred when law-abiding citizens can defend themselves,” Michel added.
The law would have banned carrying guns in private businesses, unless the business expressly put up a sign saying that individuals were allowed to carry. Guns would have been banned on public transportation, at public gatherings, in parking areas, in parks and at playgrounds, sports venues, casinos, hospitals and clinics, churches, and banks, according to the L.A. Times.
Democrat State Attorney General Rob Bonta plans to appeal the judge’s decision.