Hours after the Trump-packed Supreme Court struck down states’ rights to limit the carrying of firearms in public, Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta insisted California’s concealed-carry law will remain in effect, and could even expand.
Not even one month after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting took 21 lives, the Supreme Court merely chortled and then wiped children’s blood off their shoes with Citizens United money. In a stunning yet totally predictable 6-3 decision, the court announced it ruling Thursday that states cannot limit the right to carry concealed firearms in public, according to NBC News. While all states allow concealed-carry, this particular suit challenged New York state’s law that required a permit. “Thursday’s decision casts doubt on laws similar to New York’s in several other states, including California,” NBC News explained.
Gonna be very weird if Supreme Court ends a constitutional right to obtain an abortion next week, saying it should be left to the States to decide, right after it just imposed a constitutional right to concealed carry of firearms, saying it cannot be left to the States to decide
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) June 23, 2022
But the Chronicle reports that both Governor Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta insisted California’s concealed-carry laws would remain in effect, and that they are even “working on new legislation to tighten the state’s concealed-carry law.”
the Supreme Court: everyone can have a gun at any time for any reason with no restrictions hehe
also the Supreme Court: someone was on a public street outside my home with a poster board sign in their hand and I got scared, please make this punishable by death @ Congress
— sarah (@slwein) June 23, 2022
In the Supreme Court’s ruling, Judge Clarence Thomas (of course) wrote that “in six States, including New York, the government further conditions issuance of a license to carry on a citizen’s showing of some additional special need. Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State’s licensing regime violates the Constitution.”
A dark day in America.
This is a dangerous decision from a court hell bent on pushing a radical ideological agenda and infringing on the rights of states to protect our citizens from being gunned down in our streets, schools, and churches.
Shameful.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 23, 2022
But AG Bonta quickly responded with a Sacramento press conference. “We’ve been preparing for this moment, this Supreme Court decision, for months,” Bonta said Thursday, adding that states “still have the right to limit concealed-carry permits to those who may safely possess firearms.”
The new California bill expanding concealed-carry limits has not been introduced yet, nor is its text available. But according to the Chronicle, “Bonta said it would expand restrictions by banning concealed firearms in more public places, potentially including parks, sports venues, amusement parks and other large gathering spaces.”
Most rural California counties do allow the carrying of a concealed firearm with a permit, the permits are harder to get in counties with large cities. Californians were able to carry loaded guns anywhere they pleased up until 1967, when the governor signed the Mulford Act and said there was “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.”
That governor was… Are you sitting down?… Ronald Reagan.
Related: Third Suspect Booked in Connection to Sacramento Mass Shooting [SFist]
Image: @usualmorals via Unsplash
