An Army veteran who challenged Hawaii’s open-carry law plans to petition his case to the U.S. Supreme Court after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his argument and upheld the law, The Washington Free Beacon reports.
“We’re planning on filing for a writ of certiorari,” said Alan Beck, lawyer for George Young, who is a Hawaii native. “We’re not letting this lie.”
Young claims Hawaii’s law essentially prohibits open carry by refusing to issue permits for the practice to anyone, regardless of background or level of skill with a firearm, unless they can demonstrate that they need to carry a firearm because they fear injury to themselves or their property.
The 9th Circuit’s 7-to-4 ruling on Wednesday determined the Second Amendment does not include a right to open carry.
“Our review of more than 700 years of English and American legal history reveals a strong theme: government has the power to regulate arms in the public square. History is messy and, as we anticipated, the record is not uniform, but the overwhelming evidence from the states’ constitutions and statutes, the cases, and the commentaries confirms that we have never assumed that individuals have an unfettered right to carry weapons in public spaces,” reads the majority opinion, which was written by Judge Jay Bybee.
“There is no right to carry arms openly in public; nor is any such right within the scope of the Second Amendment,” the opinion states.
“Today’s en banc opinion properly upheld the constitutionality of our State’s longstanding law allowing persons to carry firearms openly in public when licensed to do so,” Hawaii Attorney General Clare Connors said in a written statement following the ruling, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat. “The Second Amendment does not provide a blanket right to carry firearms in public. Instead, it allows States to enact common sense regulations like those we have in Hawaii.”
The court made a similar ruling previously in regard to California’s gun laws, a decision that Beck said is “disappointing,” but said it could push the Supreme Court to take up their case.
“The 9th Circuit just became the first court of appeals to expressly state that the Second Amendment right does not apply to armed self-defense outside the home,” Beck said. “Therefore, it is expressly split with the 7th Circuit, the D.C. Court of Appeals. That opens up the possibility of Supreme Court review.”
Jake Charles of Duke University’s Center for Firearms Law told the Free Beacon that the new ruling could cause the Supreme Court to get involved, but noted that the court would be more likely to hear Corlett, a case from New York involving that state’s concealed-carry law.
“I do think that having the public carry issue teed up in Corlett at the same time Young was decided probably does increase the chances that we see a grant in Corlett,” Charles said. “Much of it hinges on what kind of case the justices want to take to start establishing some more guidance for lower court cases.”
Source: Newmax
