Guns are still not allowed in most public places in California.
Another federal appeals court said on Saturday that California should not be able to enforce its gun ban in most public places. This is because a lower court already blocked the ban.
Back and forth in the law
A state law called Senate Bill 2 is at the heart of the case. This law limits who can own guns and where they can be used in public, among other things.
Since the ban was made, there has been a lot of debate about whether it can be implemented. The law became law on January 1. Gun rights groups and people with concealed carry permits sued the state, saying the law was illegal.
On December 20, Judge Cormac J. Carney, the Central District of California of the U.S. District Court, stopped the law from going into effect.
At the time, Judge Carney said that the ban would “deprive” people of their right to bear guns in a way that was against the Constitution.
He stopped the rule from going into effect until further notice because it was “openly defiant of the Supreme Court and unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.”
On December 30, just last weekend, at the U.S. Court of Appeals, the group of judges in the Ninth Circuit, put the injunction on hold.
This made it possible for the law to go into force. But on Saturday, a different group of Ninth Circuit judges overturned that decision and put the order from the lower court in place.
A Brief History of the Law
California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 2 into law soon after it was introduced in September.
According to the rule, guns are prohibited in 26 public places, such as playgrounds, museums, amusement parks, stadiums, and public transportation.
Also, the law says that people can’t carry guns on the property of private businesses unless there are clear signs saying that guns are allowed.
Also, the youngest person who can get a gun license is now 21 years old, and getting a new license now requires more gun safety training.
The earlier decision by the appeals court to let Senate Bill 2 go into effect was praised by Mr. Newsom, who said it would “keep our sensible gun laws in place while we appeal the district court’s dangerous r.”
New York State Pistol and Rifle Association v. Bruen The case threw out a New York law that in the U.S. Supreme Court made it very hard to carry a gun outside of homes.
This bill was part of a wave of gun control laws that followed. With that ruling, made in 2022, the Supreme Court significantly changed the rules for gun restrictions.
Since then, many states have tried to make it harder to carry guns. One state that made it illegal to carry a firearm on public transportation and in “sensitive locations” like Times Square, sports venues, and places of worship in New York. The law has caused a lot of confusion and many cases.
What Will Happen Next?
The case over whether California’s ban is constitutional will continue, and hearings are set for April.
Supporters of the law say it is legal and will keep people in California safe. Rob Bonta, the Democrat who is attorney general of California, has said that “more guns in more sensitive places makes the public less safe.”
Some say the rule covers too many places in the state and needs to be narrower. “For decades, people with a license to carry in public have been able to carry in all of these places,” C.D. Michel, general counsel for the California Rifle & Pistol Association, said after the court’s decision in December.
