California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) issued a statement Friday in which he claimed the open carry of handguns “terrorizes children” and “destabilizes daily life.”
His statement coincided with California’s decision to appeal a Ninth Circuit panel’s ruling that the state’s open carry ban runs afoul of Bruen (2022) and violates the Second Amendment. (California has a ban on open carry in any county with a population of 200,000 or more.)
The Los Angeles Times noted that the panel issued a 2-1 ruling in which Trump appointees Lawrence VanDyke and Kenneth Kiyul Lee voted in the majority. George W. Bush appointee N. Randy Smith was the dissenting judge.
California is asking the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case en banc as Bonta is making clear his disdain for the open carry of handguns.
He said, “Allowing the open carry of firearms in densely populated counties creates unnecessary anxiety, terrorizes children, and instills fear throughout our communities.”
Bonta added, “The number one job of the California Department of Justice is to protect the public’s safety. The open presence of these weapons in urban environments does not make the public safer; it spreads panic and destabilizes daily life. I strongly urge the court to rehear this case so that California can continue to prevent fear, chaos, and intimidation from taking hold on the streets of our largest cities.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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