Five months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in a New York gun case set a new standard for how judges should analyze firearm restrictions, a series of hearings are set to begin Monday in federal court in San Diego that could eventually reshape California’s strict gun laws.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision struck down New York’s law requiring “good cause” to carry a concealed weapon, a ruling that has already had an immediate affect in San Diego County. The sheriff’s department has rapidly accelerated its issuance of concealed-carry weapons permits since the June 23 opinion as a result, officials said.
But the much broader implications of the ruling — the establishment of a new legal framework for courts to rule on the constitutionality of gun restrictions — is just now beginning to unfold.
Judges must now apply a standard “rooted in the Second Amendment’s text, as informed by history,” and “must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” This new legal framework — what lawyers are calling the “text and history” or “text, history and tradition” standard — could bring sweeping changes to local and state gun laws, including those that outlaw homemade firearms, those that ban assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, and those that restrict gun purchases based on a buyer’s age or the frequency of the buyer’s purchases. A law banning the possession of batons and billy clubs could also be upended, with all of these challenges happening in U.S. district court in San Diego, a favorite venue for gun-rights groups.
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