U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney blocked a new California gun control law Wednesday that would have prevented lawful gun owners from carrying concealed weapons in 26 places, including churches, public parks, and playgrounds.
In his ruling announced on Wednesday, Carney described the California gun control law as a violation of the Second Amendment and an act of defiance against the United States Supreme Court.
The restrictive gun control law was signed by California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in September. After the law was signed, the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) submitted a lawsuit to prevent the legislation from being enforced.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Carney explained that the law was “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”
The gun control law, known as Senate Bill 2 (SB2), involved in Wednesday’s ruling that granted the CRPA a preliminary injunction against the state’s legislation, would ban California residents from carrying concealed weapons at public gatherings, parks, playgrounds, hospitals, clinics, churches, casinos, sports venues, banks, most private business, and on public transportation, according to The Los Angeles Times.
“SB2 turns nearly every public place in California into a ‘sensitive place,’ effectively abolishing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding and exceptionally qualified citizens to be armed and to defend themselves in public,” Carney wrote.
“Although the government may have some valid safety concerns, legislation regulating [concealed carry] permitholders — the most responsible of law abiding citizens seeking to exercise their Second Amendment rights — seems an odd and misguided place to focus to address those safety concerns,” Carney added.
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Responding to Wednesday’s ruling, Newsom criticized Carney’s ruling, describing the court’s decision as “repugnant.”
“Defying common sense, this ruling outrageously calls California’s data-backed gun safety efforts ‘repugnant,'” Newsom said in a statement obtained by Fox News. “What is repugnant is this ruling, which greenlights the proliferation of guns in our hospitals, libraries, and children’s playgrounds — spaces which should be safe for all.”
On the other hand, CRPA President Chuck Michel applauded the judge’s decision and criticized California for attempting to prevent U.S. citizens from being able to “defend themselves.”
“California progressive politicians refuse to accept the Supreme Court’s mandate from the Bruen case and are trying every creative ploy they can imagine to get around it. The Court saw through the State’s gambit,” he stated. “We are all safer and criminals are deterred when law-abiding citizens can defend themselves.”
According to The Daily Wire, Rob Bonta, California’s Democrat State Attorney General, is planning to appeal Carney’s decision.
