Ninth Circuit Ponders Gun Owners’ Suit Over L.A. License Policy

The panel of federal appeals court judges at a hearing Monday puzzled over whether to revive a constitutional challenge from a group of gun owners who allege Los Angeles unlawfully arrested them for carrying a firearm in public without a license.

The plaintiffs, gunowners that live in L.A. and one traveling in the city from Tennessee, allege the city’s gun licensing regime creates a Catch-22: under California state law gun owners must have concealed carry permits but the city effectively doesn’t issue permits.

However, the three judges for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was stuck on ...