"It is not the role of this Court…to pronounce the 2nd amendment extinct"
A major victory for gun rights proponents out of the typically very left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today. The full ruling is here, but essentially the three-judge panel struck down California’s prohibition on concealed carry.
The court, surprisingly, found that the 2nd amendment means exactly what it says. Americans don’t just have the right to keep arms, but to bear them as well. And the land mark DC vs. Heller ruling set an important precedent for that plain reading.
Via Gabe Malor, here’s the pertinent excerpts:
And it really was a hinderance. As Zach Weissmueller writes for Reason, “Approximately 0.1% of California citizens have CCWs, which is almost 20 times lower than in the average shall-issue state, a statistic that supports the courts opinion that the “good cause” rule is destroying, or at least severely hindering, the right to bear arms.”
This fight may not be over yet. While it’s surprising, and an excellent sign, that the very left-leaning 9th Circuit has upheld the 2nd amendment, three other appeals courts have ruled a different way, pretty much guaranteeing that this issue is going to arrive before the Supreme Court eventually.
