A loaded gun in a backpack still requires a license, court says

California’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday, May 9, 2016, that the state’s ban on openly carrying loaded guns without a license applies even if the weapon is tucked inside a backpack. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) less California’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday, May 9, 2016, that the state’s ban on openly carrying loaded guns without a license applies even if the weapon is tucked inside a backpack. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. ... more Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close A loaded gun in a backpack still requires a license, court says 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Carrying a loaded gun without a license is illegal in California even if the weapon is tucked inside a backpack, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a unanimous ruling Monday, the court allowed prosecutors to charge a man with violating California’s open-carry law by carrying a loaded revolver that police said they found in his backpack.

The law makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, to carry a loaded gun “on the person or in a vehicle while in any public place.” It was passed nearly five decades ago to plug a hole in state firearms laws after members of the recently formed Black Panthers began conducting “cop watch” patrols of Oakland neighborhoods while openly carrying guns. At the time, state law did not prohibit the activity. About 30 armed Panthers showed up at the state Capitol in May 1967 to protest the pending legislation.

California also prohibits carrying a concealed handgun outside the home without a license issued by the police chief or the county sheriff, licenses that are unavailable in most populous areas of the state except to police and security guards. A federal appeals court is reviewing a constitutional challenge to that law.

Monday’s case dates from February 2014, when Steven Wade was arrested after Los Angeles police found a loaded revolver in a backpack that he had been carrying and tossed away as officers chased him.

He was charged with a felony because the gun was unregistered, but a judge dismissed the open-carry charge, relying on a state appeals court ruling in 2013 that dismissed charges of carrying weaponized knives that police had found in a defendant’s backpack.

The state’s high court said the ruling on knives didn’t apply to Wade’s case. For one thing, Justice Ming Chin said in the 7-0 decision, the defendant in the knife case was leaning on the closed backpack, while Wade was carrying his pack. For another, the court in the 2013 case observed that knives can be used in “such lawful pursuits as fishing, hunting, camping, picknicking and the like,” a rationale that Chin said doesn’t apply to guns.

More fundamentally, Chin said, the law was intended to address the dangers posed by “those with control over and ready access to loaded guns in public,” whether the gun is in a zippered pocket or a backpack.

Wade’s lawyer, David Polsky, disagreed with the ruling. The history of the law, and particularly its connection with the Black Panther activities, “shows that what the Legislature was really targeting was the open carrying of loaded firearms in public,” he said.

But Deputy District Attorney Scott Collins, who represented the prosecution, said California courts have recognized that the goal of all firearms laws was “simply to enhance public safety.”

The case is People vs. Wade, S224599.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko