BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is cheering the ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals striking down California’s ban on open carry in urban areas, which is a serious blow to the state’s effort to trample the Second Amendment rights of its citizens. The case is known as Baird v. Bonta.
The 2-1 majority opinion was authored by Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, a 2020 Donald Trump appointee. He was joined by Circuit Judge Kenneth Lee, a 2019 Trump appointee. Submitting a partial dissent was Senior Judge Norman Randy Smith, a 2007 George W. Bush appointee, who also partly concurred.
“We’re delighted with Judge VanDyke’s majority opinion,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “not only because it strikes down Calfornia’s restrictive open carry law, but also because it sends a signal to anti-gun legislatures in other Ninth Circuit states that the Second Amendment cannot be treated as a second-class right, which they seem to believe is a government-regulated privilege.
“We are mindful this ruling may quickly bring a request from California for a re-hearing before a full Ninth Circuit panel,” he continued. “That’s been the pattern for years, so we are fully aware this battle is not finished, and it could go to the U.S. Supreme Court, where we anticipate Judge VanDyke’s opinion will be upheld.”
In his ruling, Judge VanDyke observed, “Open carry is unquestionably part of our Nation’s history and tradition of ‘the right to keep and bear arms.’ The clear protection for open carry, stretching back to the Founding, means that under Bruen we do not reach the ‘nuanced approach’ in evaluating California’s broad ban on open carry. And in any event, courts cannot use the ‘nuanced approach’ to analogize at levels of generality so high that they can bless bans on conduct that was indisputably unregulated and widespread both in 1791 and 1868. We decline California’s invitation to open that Pandora’s box.”
“Essentially,” Gottlieb stated, “Judge VanDyke’s majority opinion affirms the Second Amendment means what it says. The right to keep, and especially bear, arms ‘shall not be infringed,’ which is exactly what the State of California has been doing with its open carry ban. It’s time for California lawmakers to not only read the proverbial writing on the wall, but to read every word of Judge VanDyke’s opinion and take it to heart.”