The Los Angeles Times published an editorial on July 26, claiming the Ninth Circuit’s pro-open carry ruling is fraudulent and reiterating their position that the ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) is fraudulent too.

On July 24, 2018, Breitbart News reported that a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit ruled openly carrying a gun in public is constitutional. Reuters quoted Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain writing, “We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence. But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.”

This is a logical step following the 2008 Heller ruling, wherein the Supreme Court of the United States reaffirmed that our Founding Fathers hedged in an individual right to keep and bear arms when the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791.

But the LA Times claims SCOTUS was wrong in Heller and that the Ninth Circuit panel is equally wrong on open carry. The Times claims, “The panel’s decision is just as wrong as the Heller case it is built upon, and if it stands, it will make the nation a more dangerous place.”

The Times does not grapple with the facts about openly carried firearms and/or constitutional carry in the editorial. Although it would have been helpful for readers to see whether openly carried firearms and/or constitutional carry does indeed tend toward greater danger.

Ironically, if we look at FBI crime stats we see that murders with handguns dropped in Alaska, Arizona, and Wyoming when they abolished their concealed carry permit requirement, thereby allowing open or concealed carry without government-issued documentation. On June 7, 2017, Breitbart News reported that Alaska abolished their permit requirement in 2003, Arizona in 2010, and Wyoming in 2011. Handgun murders dropped in all three states thereafter.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator ofDown Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.