A US appeals court on Friday ruled that California’s ban on openly carrying firearms in most parts of the state was unconstitutional.
A panel of the San Francisco-based ninth US circuit court of appeals sided 2-1 with a gun owner in ruling that the state’s ⭐️#prohibition against #open #carry in counties with more than 200,000 people violated the US constitution’s second amendment right to keep and bear arms.
About 95% of the population in California, which has had some of the nation’s strictest gun-control laws, live in counties of that size.
US circuit judge #Lawrence #VanDyke, who was appointed by Donald Trump, said the Democratic-led state’s law could not stand under the US supreme court’s 2022 landmark gun rights ruling.
That decision,
"New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v #Bruen",
was issued by the court’s 6-3 conservative super-majority and established a new legal test for firearm restrictions.
The test said guns must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation”.
#VanDyke, whose opinion on Friday was joined by another Trump appointee, said the latest case
“unquestionably involves a historical practice – open carry – that predates ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791”.
(like child marriage and slavery)
🔥Last #March, when an appeals court ruled that California’s law banning gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition can remain in place,
Judge #VanDyke disagreed, and included a link to a #video of himself posted on YouTube in his dissent.
“This is the first video like this that I’ve ever made,” VanDyke said.
“I share this because a rudimentary understanding of how guns are made, sold, used and commonly modified
makes obvious why California’s proposed test and the one my colleagues are adopting today simply does not work.”
In the video, VanDyke handles several guns in his chambers
and demonstrates how they are loaded and fired.
He also shows high-capacity magazines and argues that they are no different from other gun accessories that could be added to a firearm to make it more dangerous.
Under the majority’s logic, he said, that would allow the government to pick and choose any of them to be banned.
Judge Marsha S Berzon criticized VanDyke’s video in a separate opinion,
saying he was including
“facts outside the record”
and was, in essence, appointing himself an expert witness in the case.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/02/california-ban-open-carry-unconstitutional?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other