BELLEVUE, WA – Friday’s unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturning California’s one-gun-per-month law is not just a victory for gun rights, it also serves as a proverbial shot across the bow of anti-gun groups in western states, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) declared.
Both Ceasefire Oregon and the Washington-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility have one-gun-per-month provisions in their legislative agendas. In the Evergreen State, Substitute House Bill 1132 was stalled in the House Rules Committee earlier this year, but by law, remains alive into the 2026 legislative session.
“We are opposed to this Draconian restriction on both sides of the Columbia River,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and the Ninth Circuit Court panel’s ruling clearly explains why. There is nothing in either the federal or state constitutions which remotely suggests a citizen’s right to bear arms is limited to a single arm. Even Judge Danielle J. Forrest, in her opinion for the court, noted how the language of the Second Amendment uses the term ‘arms,’ which is a plural reference.”
Joining Judge Forrest in her opinion are Circuit Judges John B. Owens and Bridget S. Bade. Judges Forrest and Bade are both Donald Trump appointees, while Judge Owens, who wrote a short concurring opinion, is a Barack Obama appointee.
“We are encouraged by the Appeals Court panel’s ruling,” Gottlieb stated, “because it puts a serious roadblock in the path of gun prohibition extremists who have convinced Democrats up and down the West Coast they should treat the right to keep and bear arms as a government-regulated privilege.
“The Second Amendment means what it says,” Gottlieb observed, “as do Article 1, Section 27 of the Oregon constitution, and Article 1, Section 24 of the Washington constitution. They do not provide for restrictions on private citizens. Instead, they restrict the government from infringing upon or impairing the right to keep and bear arms, a lesson gun control zealots need to learn.”