US federal judge blocks California law barring guns in public

[December 21, 2023]  By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) - A California law that would have banned the carrying of guns in most public places as of Jan. 1 was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California wrote in his preliminary injunction that the law would "unconstitutionally deprive" concealed carry permit holders "of their constitutional right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense."

The California law, Carney wrote, "is sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court."

California's Attorney General Rob Bonta, who was listed in his official capacity as the defendant in the lawsuit, said in a statement that his office would appeal the decision.

Bonta wrote that if the ruling stands, it "would endanger communities by allowing guns in places where families and children gather."

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement that he would continue pushing for more gun laws, and that the federal court's decision "green lights the proliferation of guns in our hospitals, libraries, and children's playgrounds - spaces which should be safe for all."

Signed into law in September, the measure would ban concealed carry permit holders from carrying guns in 26 different categories of "sensitive places" such as hospitals, playgrounds, stadiums, zoos and places of worship.

The law "turns nearly every public place in California into a 'sensitive place,' effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public," Carney wrote.

Students from Miguel Contreras Learning Center high school in Los Angeles demonstrate in front of City Hall after walking out of school to protest U.S. gun violence, California, U.S., May 31, 2022. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right of citizens "to keep and bear arms."

The interpretation of exactly what that entails has been the source of intense debate and legal action within the U.S. for decades. Gun violence has been the No. 1 cause of death for children in the U.S. since 2020, and the U.S. has by far the highest rate of gun deaths among rich countries.

In issuing his decision, the judge pointed out recent landmark rulings of the Supreme Court that expanded gun rights.

Those Supreme Court decisions, Carney wrote, make it clear that "individuals must be able to effectuate their right to self-defense by, if they so choose, responsibly bearing arms."

Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association which filed the lawsuit to block the law, said in a statement that the measure was another example of the state's politicians refusing to accept Supreme Court rulings upholding the right to carry guns.

"The court saw through the state's gambit," Michel wrote.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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