Pro-Gun Organization Files Legal Brief in Lawsuit Taking On California’s Handgun Carry Prohibition
Jose Nino
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In the middle of February, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that it had submitted a response brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in its Carralero v. Bonta lawsuit. The lawsuit in question challenges California’s latest prohibition on firearm carry.
FPC previously obtained a preliminary injunction in this case at the district court in 2023, and it has stayed in effect while the California government appeals. “Though the State has marshaled a small army of historians, their evidence often supports Plaintiffs’ arguments,” the brief contended.
“California fails to show that any of its proffered analogues are sufficiently widespread within the relevant time period—the Founding era—or relevantly similar in ‘how’ and ‘why’ they burden the right to self-defense. Indeed, most of the challenged locations existed in some form at the Founding, and Plaintiffs are not aware of any tradition of carry bans there—nor, importantly, has California offered any such tradition.”
“The district court has already found that California’s law preventing even licensed Californians from carrying firearms outside the home in much of the state is likely unconstitutional—the Ninth Circuit should do the same,” declared Cody J. Wisniewski, FPC Action Foundation’s Vice President and General Counsel. “California passed this law in an attempt to undermine the rights of peaceable Californians in the face of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen. The Court should not entertain the state’s temper-tantrum and should instead vindicate the rights of Californians while this case proceeds.”
The challengers in the case include FPC, Orange County Gun Owners PAC, San Diego County Gun Owners PAC, California Gun Rights Foundation, and three individuals. These concerned parties are represented by David S. Thompson, Pete Patterson, and Kate Rhodes of Cooper & Kirk and Bradley Benbrook and Stephen Duvernay of Benbrook Law Group.
FPC has carved out an important niche in the pro-Second Amendment community by becoming an active force for pro-gun litigation nationwide, especially in blue states. After all, in these jurisdictions, it’s virtually impossible to affect change at the state level.
The only option at that juncture is to use the judicial system to bring about change. FPC is the one pro-gun org that perfectly fulfills that role.
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