A federal judge recently dealt a blow to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s anti-gun agenda, temporarily blocking officials in The Golden State from enacting a law banning concealed carry.
U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California issued a temporary restraining order, preventing the law from taking effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
In his ruling, Carney wrote, “The right to self-defense and to defend one’s family is fundamental and inherent to our very humanity irrespective of any formal codification.”
“For many years, the right to bear arms, and so necessarily the right to self-defense, was relegated to second-class status,” the district judge continued.
“But the United States Supreme Court made clear in its landmark decisions District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. City of Chicago, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Incorporated v. Bruen that relegation could no longer be permitted — individuals must be able to effectuate their right to self-defense by, if they so choose, responsibly bearing arms,” he added.
The judge: "SB2's coverage is sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court." https://t.co/JkruNDhgKO pic.twitter.com/bFKUEiFC3w
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) December 21, 2023
On Sept. 26, 2023, Newsom signed legislation restricting the places where permit holders can carry concealed weapons. The California governor denounced the Bruen decision of 2021, calling it a “perversion.”
The law, dubbed Senate Bill 2, lists 26 different categories of “sensitive places” where concealed weapons are prohibited.
“The law designates twenty-six categories of places, such as hospitals, public transportation, places that sell liquor for on-site consumption, playgrounds, parks, casinos, stadiums, libraries, amusement parks, zoos, places of worship, and banks, as ‘sensitive places’ where concealed carry permit holders cannot carry their handguns,” Carney said of the law.
“SB2 turns nearly every public place in California into a ‘sensitive place,’ effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public,” he added.
In June 2023, Newsom proposed adding a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would preserve many of California’s anti-Second Amendment laws, including a ban on semi-automatic firearms, longer waiting periods and universal background checks, making the process for law-abiding citizens to obtain firearms more difficult.
The California governor claimed that his proposal would leave “the Second Amendment unchanged,” even though all it would do is make it harder for Americans to own a weapon for self-defense.
