California Can’t Guarantee Concealed Carry Rights

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California says the Second Amendment does not guarantee citizens the right to carry concealed guns in public. In a 7-4 ruling, the court threatened the fabric of the rights of not only the third largest state in the union but the entire West. The Ninth Circuit encompasses Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Citizens must show “good cause” for carrying a concealed weapon, specifically a handgun, and personal safety is not good cause, according to county sheriffs. In this lawsuit, the plaintiffs were gun owners seeking concealed carry licenses.

Judge William A. Fletcher, voicing the majority opinion, is quoted as saying, “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.”

Fletcher says the Supreme Court has not adequately answered whether or not the Constitution’s Second Amendment preserves the right to openly carry a firearm. Fletcher was an appointee of President Bill Clinton.

Voicing the dissenting opinion, President George W. Bush-appointee Judge Consuelo M. Callahan said the Second Amendment does allow the public carrying of weapons, either openly or concealed. She is quoted as saying that the bans on open carry and the concealed carry restrictions “obliterate the Second Amendment’s right to bear a firearm in some manner in public for self-defense.”