A federal appeals court dealt a major blow to California’s gun laws Friday, ruling the state’s open-carry ban in most populated areas violates the Second Amendment because it cannot be justified under the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
In a 2–1 decision, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said California’s restriction on openly carrying firearms fails the Supreme Court’s modern Second Amendment test, which requires gun regulations to align with how firearms were regulated at the time of the nation’s founding.
California’s law bars open carry in counties with populations over 200,000 — effectively prohibiting it across most of the state — and the court said banning conduct at the core of the Second Amendment imposes more than a minimal burden on the right to keep and bear arms.
Writing for the majority, one justice called the case “straightforward,” noting that open carry was not banned at the nation’s founding and was historically viewed as constitutionally protected conduct.
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