AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block California's limits on concealed carry permit holders in a brief filed with eight other governors.

"The question presented is whether the State of California can single out one group of disfavored citizens--namely, gun owners--and impose unique burdens on their fundamental rights," the brief reads. "Indeed, no other group of private citizens has to prove--to the satisfaction of a government official vested with unreviewable and boundless discretion--that they really need to exercise their fundamental constitutional freedoms."

California law prohibits residents from carrying a concealed weapon in public locations and does not allow individuals to get aconcealed carry licenses unless they can establish good cause, prompting a lawsuit from a number of people who were denied licenses.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of California last year, writing "there is no Second Amendment right for members of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public."

Plaintiffs have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case during their next term.

"California's only purported justification is that guns are somehow different because they pose unique "public safety" concerns," the Republican governors argue. "That blinks reality. It cannot be disputed that concealed-carry permitholders are disproportionately less likely to pose threats to 'public safety.' And empirical evidence proves that concealed-carry laws either reduce crime or have no effect on it."

Governors from Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, South Carolina and South Dakota signed onto the brief with Abbott.