With a New Year comes a new firearm restriction in the country’s most populous state. Beginning this past Monday, a law in California that prohibits people from carrying concealed guns in most public places was allowed to take effect after a federal appeals court stayed a lower-court block against it.
It was just last month that U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney rejected major portions of the law as unconstitutional and issued an injunction blocking it from taking effect while gun owners challenged it in court. However, just 10 days later and two days before the New Year, a federal appeals court put a temporary hold on that injunction.
The challenge to the new law was brought by the California Rifle and Pistol Association.
The recent ruling allowed the legal process to continue to play out as the law takes effect. The law, which was introduced as Senate Bill 2, was signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom. It bans carrying concealed firearms in 26 locations, including public parks, playgrounds, churches, banks, and zoos, as well as anywhere that liquor is sold and consumed. It applies to gun owners even with a license to carry a concealed weapon, including in rural, less populated parts of the Golden State.
The sole exception would be for private businesses, which can choose to display signs that say people are allowed to bring guns onto their property.
“This ruling will allow our common-sense gun laws to remain in place while we appeal the district court’s dangerous ruling. Californians overwhelmingly support efforts to ensure that places like hospitals, libraries and children’s playgrounds remain safe and free from guns,” Governor Newsom said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, after the federal appeals court ordered the temporary hold.
Chuck Michel, an attorney for the gun holders in the case, told reporters, including The Los Angeles Times, that he would ask the appellate court for an expedited decision on the merits. Michel added he believes that a decision will again block the new state law as an illegitimate “ruse” to get around Bruen – the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. vs. Bruen held that strict limits on concealed carry permits in states like New York and California amounted to unconstitutional restraints on people’s right to self-defense.
“The people who have these licenses have them for a reason,” Michel said. “Some of them are in direct threat, and now they are limited in their ability to protect themselves and their families.”
