A three judge panel of a Federal Circuit court – not just any federal circuit, but the Ninth – has ruled that the 2nd Amendment applies to law-abiding citizens carrying firearms for self-defense in public, and has reversed a Hawaii federal district court ruling clamping pre-Heller-style restrictions on citizens in Hawaii:
The ruling issued by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, came a year after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule either way on the carrying of guns in public.
Two of the three 9th Circuit judges voted to reverse a decision by the U.S. District Court in Hawaii that state officials did not infringe on the rights of George Young, the plaintiff, in twice denying him a permit to carry a gun outside.
“We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence,” Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”
Kavanaugh can’t get on the bench soon enough.
I, too, was shocked, yet pleasantly surprised, that this ruling came out of the Ninth. Considering how many times they have defined the Constitution and federal law, this is indeed a victory for freedom loving patriots.
That’s my county.
Picture this: I am typing this with one hand while I am grabbing my roscoe with the other.
I read the opinion. It’s wonderful, literate, thorough, and applies the correct method of Constitutional analysis and scrutiny, as if it had been written by Scalia himself.
Caution: this ruling applies to Open Carry only, not to Concealed Carry which the state still has the power to regulate, and is only a three-judge panel which could be reversed by appeal to the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hawaii is so bad you are only allowed to take your weapon out of your home to go to a shooting range or licensed gun shop & back home. No side trips. If you hold a legal, registered weapon and you can’t convince the cop that pulled you over that you were going directly to or directly home from a shooting range, your weapon will be confiscated and you will be charged with a misdemenor.
I anticipate a call for the full court to review, as all three judges on this panel were appointed by Republicans. Odd for that to occur on such a case, but it did.
The article I read said that Judge O’Scannlain has already had a similar, previous opinion overturned by the whole Ninth Circus.