BELLEVUE, WA – Noting that California’s “sensitive places” law severely restricting lawful concealed carry is “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court,” a federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against the law’s enforcement.
It is a major victory for the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a federal lawsuit filed in September. The case is known as May v. Bonta. Sharing the victory are Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of California, the California Rifle & Pistol Association and eleven private citizens. They are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel, Sean A. Brady and Konstadinos T. Moros at Michel & Associates in Long Beach, and Donald Kilmer, Law Offices of Don Kilmer, Caldwell, Idaho.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney at the Central District of California handed down his 43-page decision Wednesday. In his ruling, the judge noted, “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.” That all changed when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down three landmark rulings over the course of 14 years, ending with the June 2022 Bruen decision.
But California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom essentially ignored the high court, and as Judge Carney noted, defied the rulings on Second Amendment rights. Senate Bill 2, designating virtually all private property open to the public as “sensitive places” was adopted.
“SB2 is not only an affront to the right to keep and bear arms,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “it’s an insult to the intelligence of every honest citizen in the Golden State. It amounts to a massive prohibition on legal carry throughout the state, which runs counter to what the U.S. Supreme Court said in its Bruen ruling last year. Thankfully, Judge Carney sent a message to Gov. Newsom and anti-gun-rights state lawmakers that they can’t get away with this.”
SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut added, “SB 2 is deliberately designed to frustrate and ultimately discourage individuals from exercising their right to bear arms by creating a patchwork of locations where Second Amendment rights may, or may not, be exercised. We’re delighted that Judge Carney saw through this sham.”