California Seeks to Invalidate 9th Circuit Win for Conceal-Carry Guns Rights

On February 13 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

invalidated a San Diego County, California requirement which
allowed for the issuance of conceal-carry gun permits, but only
when the gun owner had “good cause” to carry a concealed weapon.
And according to county officials, “one’s personal safety is not
considered good cause.” That restriction, the 9th Circuit ruled,
eliminated “the only way that the typical responsible, law-abiding
citizen can carry a weapon in public for the lawful purpose of
self-defense,” and therefore amounted to an unconstitutional
infringement on the Second Amendment.

In a petition filed
yesterday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris has urged
the 9th Circuit to wipe that gun rights ruling off the books. “This
case adopts a theory of the Second Amendment with sweeping
implications for the constitutional permissibility of hitherto
routine state and local regulation of the public carrying of
dangerous weapons,” the California petition argues, and it also
“inappropriately discounts legislative policy judgments to which it
should defer.”

Harris is seeking what’s known as en banc review,
meaning the state of California has requested that a full panel of
9th Circuit judges reconsider the case (this month’s ruling was by
a 3-judge panel). Should the 9th Circuit refuse to review en
banc, the state’s next move would be a petition asking the
U.S. Supreme Court to step in and overturn the ruling.