A federal judge has blocked a California law that prohibits carrying firearms in most public places, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment and denies those with legal firearms a way to defend themselves and their loved ones.
U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California, a George W. Bush appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which was set to go into effect on Jan. 1. The judge wrote that the measure is “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”
The court case will continue while the law is prohibited from taking effect.
The law was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in September. It bans people from carrying concealed firearms in 26 places, including public parks, playgrounds, churches, banks, zoos “and any other privately owned commercial establishment that is open to the public” unless the proprietor explicitly allows on-property carry.
Just days after Mr. Newsom signed the bill into law, a lawsuit was filed by California firearm owners, Orange County Gun Owners PAC, the California Gun Rights Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition.
The suit alleged the ban violated multiple provisions of a landmark Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which essentially struck down a New York law that prohibited carrying firearms outside the home.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office will appeal the injunction decision, which he said if allowed to stand “would endanger communities by allowing guns in places where families and children gather.”
Mr. Newsom said he will continue advocating for stringent gun laws.
“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 in a statement Wednesday.
Gun rights activists praised the ruling.
“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,” said California Rifle and Pistol Association President Chuck Michel in a statement. “The court saw through the state’s gambit.”
Mr. Michel said under the law, gun permit holders “wouldn’t be able to drive across town without passing through a prohibited area and breaking the law.”
Second Amendment Foundation founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb called the California law an affront “to the right to keep and bear arms.”
“It’s an insult to the intelligence of every honest citizen in the Golden State,” he said. “It amounts to a massive prohibition on legal carry throughout the state, which runs counter to what the U.S. Supreme Court said in its Bruen ruling last year.”
Another federal court ruled differently earlier this month on this issue.
A federal appeals court in New York ruled that the state’s “sensitive locations” restrictions in its gun-control laws can continue to be enforced and require that handgun owners be of “good moral character.”
