Under the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a law that restricts conduct covered by the "plain text" of the Second Amendment is constitutional only if the government can show it is "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." In trying to meet that test, government lawyers frequently cite 19th-century state laws that prohibited people from carrying concealed firearms.
It is therefore not surprising that California relied on those laws in defending its ban on openly carrying guns, which applies in urban counties that include 95 percent of the state's population. But as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit recognized in ruling against that policy on Friday, those precedents undermine California's case instead of reinforcing it. The laws cited by California preserved the right to openly carry guns, which state courts said was clearly protected by the Second Amendment.
