COURT ALLOWS STATE GUN LAW TO TAKE EFFECT

A federal appeals court on Saturday allowed California’s ban on the carrying of firearms in most public places to take effect in 2024, halting a lower court judge’s ruling that had blocked enforcement of the law.

The state law, Senate Bill 2, sets several restrictions on gun ownership, and Gov. Gavin Newsom approved it in September. But Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California blocked enforcement of the law in December, saying that the ban on guns in most public places would unconstitutionally “deprive” citizens of their right to bear arms.

Carney wrote in his ruling to grant an injunction that the ban “is sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paused the injunction, allowing the law to go into effect today while the court takes more time to decide on the constitutionality of the law.

Newsom hailed the appeals court’s ruling in a statement, saying it will “allow our common-sense gun laws to remain in place while we appeal the district court’s dangerous ruling.”

The bill’s author, state Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the law would withstand the legal challenges. “Clearly, Californians will be safer when SB 2 becomes law,” he said, adding that the restrictions are “in the best interest of the public.”

Along with banning the carrying of guns in most public places, the law sets the minimum age for obtaining a gun license at 21 and adds more requirements for gun safety training before receiving a new license.

The public places covered by the law are divided into 26 categories with various locations, including playgrounds, public transportation, stadiums, amusement parks and museums. The law also prohibits people from carrying firearms on the grounds of private businesses unless there is clear signage indicating that they are allowed.

Concealed carry permit holders and other gunrights organizations, including the California Rifle & Pistol Association, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Gun Owners Foundation, filed a challenge against the provisions banning guns from certain public places.

Carney agreed with the plaintiffs in his ruling that the law was too restrictive on permissible places, “effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of lawabiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public.”

But state Attorney General Rob Bonta, who appealed Carney’s decision, argued that “guns in sensitive public places do not make our communities safer, but rather the opposite. More guns in more sensitive places makes the public less safe; the data supports it.”