Second Amendment
California’s 1-gun-per-month law has no ‘historical twin’ or even cousin, 9th Circuit says in striking it down
A California law preventing the purchase of more than one gun in a 30-day period violates the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. (Image from Shutterstock)
A California law preventing the purchase of more than one gun in a 30-day period violates the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco said the law is facially unconstitutional under a U.S. Supreme Court test that relies on the Second Amendment’s text and historical tradition. The Supreme Court adopted the test in the 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen.
Publications covering the 9th Circuit’s June 20 decision include the San Diego Union-Tribune, City News Service via ABC 10 News San Diego, Law360 and the Volokh Conspiracy.
“We are not aware of any circumstance where government may temporally meter the exercise of constitutional rights in this manner,” the 9th Circuit said in an opinion by Judge Danielle J. Forrest, an appointee of President Donald Trump during his first term. “And we doubt anyone would think government could limit citizens’ free speech right to one protest a month, their free exercise right to one worship service per month, or their right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures to apply only to one search or arrest per month. We could go on.”
The Bruen test determines whether a gun restriction is part of the nation’s tradition by looking for a historical analogue, rather than a “historical twin,” the 9th Circuit said.
California cited historical examples that are too far afield, Forrest said.
“While Bruen does not require a ‘historical twin’ for a modern firearm regulation to pass muster,” the 9th Circuit said, “here, the historical record does not even establish a historical cousin for California’s one-gun-a-month law.”
The case is Nguyen v. Bonta.
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