In the case of May v. Bonta, the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted a Preliminary Injunction, effectively blocking the enforcement of the “sensitive areas” provisions in Senate Bill 2 (SB 2) that severely restricted where gun owners could carry a firearm.
The lawsuit was filed by YouTube star Reno May with the help of the California Rifle Pistol Association (CRPA), Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation (GOF), and Gun Owners of California (GOC). Another case filed two weeks after May was also decided by the same judge over the same issue. That case is Carralero v. Bonta and was filed by the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Orange County Gun Owners (OCGO), San Diego County Gun Owners (SDCGO), and California Gun Rights Foundation (CGRF). Both cases challenged the constitutionality of SB 2, which was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2023.
SB 2 imposed a wide range of restrictions on the carrying of firearms in so-called “sensitive places,” such as public parks, restaurants that serve alcohol, and on private property where the owner has not posted that the carrying of arms is allowed. The law is similar to New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA), which the Second Circuit of Appeals has recently upheld an injunction of several similar cases.
In granting the Preliminary Injunction, Judge Cormac J. Carney recognized that SB 2’s restrictions on the right to bear arms were overly broad and infringed upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens of California. He knocked down restrictions on banning firearms in parks, houses of worship, private businesses, public events, playgrounds, and other places.
“The Second Amendment preserves a fundamental constitutional right for law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms for self-defense. Increasingly in modern times, with ‘the ubiquity of guns and our country’s high level of gun violence,’ ordinary law abiding people feel a need to carry handguns in public to protect themselves and their families against violence,” the judge wrote. “This may be because they ‘live in high-crime neighborhoods,’ or because they ‘must traverse dark and dangerous streets in order to reach their homes after work or other evening activities,’ or because they ‘reasonably believe that unless they can brandish or, if necessary, use a handgun in the case of attack, they may be murdered, raped, or suffer some other serious injury.’ CCW permit holders are among the most responsible, reliable law-abiding citizens. They have been through a vigorous vetting and training process following their application to carry a concealed handgun. The challenged SB2 provisions unconstitutionally deprive this group of their constitutional right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. Therefore, those provisions must be preliminarily enjoined.”
California has long been known for its strict gun control laws and its hostility towards the Second Amendment. In recent years, the state has passed a series of laws that have made it increasingly difficult for law-abiding citizens to exercise their right to bear arms, even in the wake of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Bruen. Gun rights advocates claim these laws have not only infringed upon the rights of gun owners but have also failed to address the root causes of gun violence and have left many Californians vulnerable to crime.
The May v. Bonta decision is a significant step forward in the fight to protect Second Amendment rights in California and across the country. It sends a strong message to lawmakers that they cannot simply ignore the Constitution and the Bruen decision in their quest to pass more restrictive gun control measures.
The decision is a victory for Second Amendment rights and for the rights of all Americans to protect themselves and their families. It is a reminder that our rights are not given to us by the government but are inherent to our humanity and must be protected at all costs.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
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