FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

A US Court Ruled That People Have no Constitutional Right to Carry Concealed Guns — Again

The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit ruled that there must be a good cause for people to carry concealed firearms. The National Rifle Association was not pleased.
UCSB graduate student Jeb Sprague holds up a sign that reads 'Gun Control Now' at the college town of Isla Vista, California, in 2014 after akilling rampage. ti. EPA/MICHAEL NELSON

The United States Constitution doesn't grant Americans the right to hide guns in their pants.

That's hyperbole. But it sums up the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision on Thursday in a case that challenged California's rules on granting concealed gun licenses.

"We hold that the Second Amendment does not preserve or protect a right of a member of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public," the court stated in its opinion, referring to the amendment that prohibits government from infringing on the right to "keep and bear Arms."

Advertisement

The decision echoes recent similar rulings, and overturns a February 2014 ruling by a tribunal of appellate judges that struck down the San Diego Sheriff Department's policy of requiring people to demonstrate "good cause" when they applied for concealed gun licenses. Good cause could mean people are under threat or regularly transport a lot of cash from their business to the bank, for example.

Edward Peruta and a group of Southern California residents filed a lawsuit to overturn the sheriff's policy after they were denied concealed carry permits on the basis that they didn't show good cause, a decision they claimed violated their rights under the Second Amendment.

Living between Connecticut and a mobile home in San Diego, Peruta is a colorful guy. In a profile last year, Mother Jones described him as a "66-year-old Vietnam vet, ex-cop, public-access TV host, worm farmer, legal investigator, crime scene videographer, and serial litigant."

The National Rifle Association, or NRA, helped him pay his legal bills of the case. He has not always been the best poster child for their cause.

"The NRA asked me to keep my mouth shut, but I've never run from a fuckin' interview in my life," Peruta told Mother Jones.

He was fired from the Wethersfield Police Department in 1971 for undisclosed reasons, the magazine reported. In the 1980s, he received three years of probation for his involvement in a securities fraud case involving the sale of gold and silver investments.

Advertisement

He told Mother Jones that he was sure San Diego was violating his constitutional rights.

"You don't like it?" he told the magazine. "Change the fuckin' Constitution!"

But the 11 judges of the Ninth Circuit disagreed.

"The right of a member of the general public to carry a concealed firearm in public is not, and never has been, protected by the Second Amendment," the court wrote in a summary of its opinion. "Therefore, because the Second Amendment does not protect in any degree the right to carry concealed firearms in public, any prohibition or restriction a state may choose to impose on concealed carry — including a requirement of "good cause," however defined — is necessarily allowed by the Amendment."

The court laid out a long history of governments in the US and Britain regulating weapons as far back as 1299 under Edward I.

Gun control advocates hailed the decision.

"This win marks yet another remarkable legal victory for effective gun laws," Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told VICE News. "Californians can rest assured knowing that their communities are not teeming with loaded guns. These continued successes in the courtroom are proof this movement for safe, sensible gun laws has gained the fierce momentum that once belonged only to the corporate gun industry and its lobby."

The NRA wasn't pleased.

"Once again the Ninth Circuit showed how out of touch it is with mainstream Americans," said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, in a statement to VICE News. "This decision will leave good people defenseless, as it completely ignores the fact that law-abiding Californians who reside in counties with hostile sheriffs will now have no means to carry a firearm outside the home for personal protection."

Advertisement

Elizabeth Avore, legal director of Everytown for Gun Safety, the group backed by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, didn't see this case ever going to the Supreme Court.

The Ninth Circuit covers much of the US West including Alaska and Hawaii.

The Second, Third and Fourth circuits of the US Court of Appeals have rendered similar rulings, upholding good cause requirements for concealed carry permits. Four years ago, the Seventh Circuit struck down an Illinois law that prohibited everyone but law enforcement officers from ever carrying concealed guns, a question that's separate from letting governments set conditions for carrying them.

"There is no circuit split here," said Avore, referring to numerous circuit courts issuing different opinions. "It's completely consistent with the Second Amendment. There's a centuries-long tradition of laws in this country that regulate guns in public spaces."

Avore admitted, however, that other gun rights cases would likely reach the federal appellate courts and could someday reach the Supreme Court. "That's not to say there could be a circuit split in the future on a different issue," she said.

Follow John Dyer on Twitter: @johnjdyerjr