From Judge Kenneth Lee's concurrence in today's Baird v. Bonta, joined by Judge Lawrence Vandyke:
California insists that citizens in counties with populations fewer than 200,000 people can apply for an open-carry license. Yet California admits that it has no record of even one open-carry license being issued. How could this be? One potential reason is that California has misled its citizens about how to apply for an open-carry license.
California has issued a 17-page application with the heading, "STANDARD INITIAL AND RENEWAL APPLICATION FOR LICENSE TO CARRY A WEAPON CAPABLE OF BEING CONCEALED." The first paragraph of the form then says that the law "requires the Attorney General to issue a statewide standard application form for CCW [Concealed Carry Weapon] licenses." Throughout the application, it uses the word "concealed" or "CCW" 67 times. But the phrase "open carry" is not mentioned once.
Most Californians would reasonably think that this form is used only for a concealed carry weapon permit. But they would be mistaken. A person seeking an open-carry permit must fill out a document described as a "Weapon Capable of Being Concealed" / "CCW [Concealed Carry Weapon]" form. This would be like a city telling its citizens that they can obtain a building permit for a fence in their front yard but not advising them that they actually have to submit a demolition permit form.
