California has some of the nation’s strongest gun safety laws, but one that requires citizens to supply a “good cause” for why they should be granted a license to carry concealed weapons in public is under challenge.

The packing of concealed weapons by citizens is all the rage in the gun rights movement, as more statehouses yield to the gun lobby on this issue, imposing fewer and fewer qualifications when they do. While California has resisted this trend, the fate of its law allowing county officials to set conditions on the issuance of gun permits was debated last month before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

For years, the sheriffs’ offices of San Diego and Yolo Counties, acting under the law, required that a “good cause” be offered by an applicant seeking to carry a concealed weapon. The sheriffs properly argued that public safety was ultimately at stake and applicants needed to cite more than their concerns about their own safety to justify a license to carry a gun in public. Typically, those getting permits were people who carried large sums of money, carried extremely valuable items or faced a threat of mortal danger.

Gun rights advocates sued, challenging the “good cause” requirement as a violation of the Second Amendment right to bear arms. They won 2 to 1 before a three-member panel of the appeals court last year; that decision is now under review by an 11-member panel.