California’s Open-Carry Gun Ban Struck Down by Ninth Circuit (1)

California’s law banning residents of highly populated counties from openly carrying their firearms was ruled unconstitutional by a panel of Ninth Circuit judges Friday.

“There is no record of any law restricting open carry at the Founding, let alone ‘a distinctly similar historical regulation,’” Judge Lawrence VanDyke, an appointee of President Donald Trump and strong Second Amendment advocate, wrote in the majority opinion.

But the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld California’s open-carry licensing scheme for residents in less populated, rural counties, finding that the system is “theoretically” constitutional.

The state outright bans the open carry of ...