Court sets California gun-carry case on path to Supreme Court

Photo: Marilyn Nieves/Getty Images/Vetta

A federal appeals court rejected a challenge by gun groups Monday to California’s requirement of a license to carry a concealed handgun outside the home, clearing the way for a final test in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the law in June, ruling 7-4 that there is no constitutional right to carry concealed weapons in public. Opponents sought a rehearing before the entire appeals court, but the court said Monday that the request had failed to win a majority among its 28 active judges. No vote total was announced.

“We will now ask the Supreme Court to set things straight,” said the gun advocates’ lawyer, C.D. Michel.

The century-old state law requires handgun owners to obtain a permit from a local law enforcement agency before they can legally pack their weapons in public. The permits are virtually unavailable to anyone except police and security guards in most metropolitan areas, but are issued in most rural and inland areas to any adult who asserts a need for self-defense and does not have a disqualifying criminal record. Seven other states have similar licensing laws.

Gun permits issued in any California county are valid statewide, except for those that are based on the applicant’s place of work, which are good only in that county.

Two men who were denied permits in San Diego and Yolo counties challenged the law, and were then joined by firearms groups.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to possess guns at home for self-defense but has not said whether that right applies outside the home. Most, but not all, federal appeals courts have upheld states’ restrictions on carrying loaded weapons in public.

In 2014, a panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 that the Second Amendment applies equally outside the home and that the California law therefore violates the constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense. But the law remained in place while the state appealed and won a new hearing before a panel of 11 judges, under the court’s rules for reviewing a small number of contested decisions.

In its 7-4 ruling June 9, the court majority said the United States and England have no history or tradition of allowing private citizens to carry concealed firearms outside the home. Judge William Fletcher also noted that the Supreme Court had declared in 1897 that a ban on carrying guns in public would not violate the right to bear arms.

Dissenting Judge Barry Silverman said there was no evidence that preventing law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms reduces gun violence. Judge Susan Graber replied that previously law-abiding citizens, allowed to carry guns under more-permissive state laws, had killed numerous law enforcement officers and other victims.

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