Gun owners scored a major win in California on Friday, as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state’s open-carry ban, declaring it unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
In a 2-1 decision, the panel sided with Mark Baird, who challenged California’s prohibition on openly carrying firearms in counties with over 200,000 residents. That law, known as the “urban open-carry ban,” effectively barred the vast majority of Californians from exercising their right to bear arms in public.
Judge Lawrence VanDyke, a Trump appointee, authored the majority opinion and said the “historical record makes unmistakably plain that open carry is part of this Nation’s history and tradition.” He pointed out that at the time of the Founding and the ratification of the 14th Amendment, there were no laws restricting open carry.
“California’s failure to satisfy its burden to present evidence of a relevant historical tradition of firearm regulation is dispositive,” VanDyke wrote.
The ruling leaned heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision, which reaffirmed that Americans have a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. VanDyke noted that California had joined a “tiny minority” of states with such sweeping open-carry restrictions.
“California is the only state in the Ninth Circuit that has entirely banned open carry for the overwhelming majority of its citizens,” VanDyke added.
He was joined by Judge Kenneth Lee, also a Trump appointee. Both judges rejected the state’s legal arguments defending the ban.
Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has made gun control a priority, had defended the law in court. The judges’ ruling is a significant setback for California’s sweeping gun control regime.
The ruling does not eliminate all of California’s gun laws. The panel did uphold restrictions on open carry in counties with fewer than 200,000 people, where permits are still required.
Senior Judge N. Randy Smith, appointed by President George W. Bush, dissented in part. He argued the court should have upheld the law and affirmed the earlier district court decision that dismissed Baird’s claims.
This decision marks a rare but impactful victory for Second Amendment advocates in one of the most gun-restrictive states in the country.
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