This Thursday, a divided federal appeals court in California ruled that according to the Constitution, there is no right for a person to carry a concealed handgun.
In a vote of 7-4, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a California law requiring gun owners to show a good reason before they can obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun.
“The protection of the Second Amendment — whatever the scope of that protection may be — simply does not extend to the carrying of concealed firearms in public by members of the general public,” the court said in its ruling.
Questions surrounding openly carrying firearms in public were not considered in the case.
From NBC News:
Gun owners in two California counties challenged the requirement that they show “good cause,” as defined by county sheriffs, before they could get concealed carry permits.
Thursday’s majority opinion traced the rights of gun owners from medieval England to the founding of the United States and through the Civil War, finding that local laws almost universally prohibited carrying concealed firearms in public.
“Because the Second Amendment does not protect in any degree the right to carry concealed firearms in public, any prohibition or restriction a state may choose to impose on concealed carry — including the requirement of ‘good cause,’ however defined — is necessary allowed by the Amendment,” the Court said.
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