Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, who was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump, said the Democratic-led state’s law could not stand under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark gun rights ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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 firearms restrictions. The test said they must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”<\/p>\n VanDyke, whose opinion on Friday was joined by another Trump appointee, said the latest case “unquestionably involves a historical practice \u2014 open carry \u2014 that predates ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791.”<\/p>\n He noted that more than 30 states generally allow open carry. California itself allowed citizens to carry handguns openly and holstered for self-defense without penalty until 2012, he said.<\/p>\n “The historical record makes unmistakably plain that open carry is part of this Nation\u2019s history and tradition,” VanDyke said.<\/p>\n The ruling partially reversed a 2023 decision by a lower-court judge who had rejected a 2019 challenge to the law by gun owner Mark Baird.<\/p>\n While the appeals court largely sided with Baird, it rejected his related challenge to California\u2019s licensing requirements in counties with fewer than 200,000 residents, which may issue open-carry permits.<\/p>\n Senior U.S. Circuit Judge N. Randy Smith, who was appointed by Republican former President George W. Bush, dissented, saying his colleagues “got this case half right” as all of California’s restrictions complied with the Supreme Court’s ruling.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat who defended the state’s ban, in a statement said his office is considering its options. “We are committed to defending California’s common sense gun laws,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The 2022 Supreme Court ruling has prompted court cases<\/a> nationwide challenging modern firearm restrictions, including in California.<\/a>A 9th Circuit panel in September 2024 upheld a California law<\/a> that prohibits people with concealed-carry permits from carrying firearms at several categories of “sensitive places” like bars, parks, zoos, stadiums and museums.<\/p>\n Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Cynthia Osterman<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a> Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ruling cites landmark 2022 Supreme Court decision on firearm regulationRestriction applied to about 95% of state’s populationDissenting judge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17544,1180,7,9,8,7417,10182,28876,62750,1221,17558,10188,7485,1223,1222,17313,1139,62747,10183,721,7479,1186,17551,18463,62746,62749,17555,18460,17276,7478,1224,1153,7477,7480,62748,17316,2777,7433,26812,2775,1181,7432,26819,1174],"class_list":["post-118297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-advo","tag-amers","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-civ","tag-clj","tag-destlit","tag-destoapp","tag-destocatpm","tag-destociv","tag-destolit","tag-destopub","tag-destousdnm","tag-destoustpm","tag-dli","tag-gen","tag-gunctr","tag-judic","tag-law","tag-legal","tag-namer","tag-ngo","tag-nrlinojud","tag-nrlinoscotus","tag-nrlpaoapp","tag-nrlpaociv","tag-nrlpaoconl","tag-nrlpaolit","tag-nrlpaopub","tag-packageus-top-news","tag-pol","tag-regs","tag-reuters-legal","tag-scotus","tag-soci","tag-topcmb","tag-topicworld-us-california","tag-topicworld-us-new-jersey","tag-topnws","tag-us","tag-usaca","tag-usanj","tag-wash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/arc-authors\/reuters\/12ff96eb-dca5-42fb-a5a9-f690563e55b7.png\")
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