PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Local gun shop regulation to have its day in court :: 12/28/2016
A federal appeals court granted county officials a new hearing Tuesday on whether local governments in California can restrict the location of gun shops, setting aside a ruling that said such regulations may violate the right to bear arms.
By a majority vote of its 27 judges, the Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered a rehearing in a case challenging an ordinance passed by Alameda County supervisors in 1998. The ordinance prohibits new gun stores in unincorporated areas within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood, a school, a day care center, a liquor store or another gun shop.
An appeals court panel voted 2-1 in May to reinstate a suit by gun shop applicants, which a federal judge had dismissed. The panel majority said the Constitution protects the right to buy and sell firearms as well as the right to own them, and that the county, to justify the restrictions, must at least provide evidence that gun stores are “a magnet for crime.”
Tuesday’s order referred the case to an 11-judge panel, consisting of Chief Judge Sidney Thomas and 10 randomly selected judges, for a hearing to be scheduled later.
Lawyers for Alameda County said 17 other cities and counties in California regulate the locations of commercial gun dealers, including San Francisco — which has a 1,000-foot buffer zone — as well as Oakland and Contra Costa County.
The court’s ruling “will affect whether every one of those will be subject to detailed litigation,” said Brian Goldman, a lawyer for the county.
State Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office said a ruling allowing a constitutional challenge to the local restrictions could also imperil state laws regulating commercial gun dealers’ licensing, inspection, monitoring, storage methods and delivery of firearms.
Brandon Combs, executive director of the Calguns Foundation, said restrictions on local dealers can effectively nullify the right to own guns.
“The state wants everybody to register their firearm and go through a background check” before a purchase, Combs said. “The only way you can do that is if you can go to a gun store.”
Alameda County has at least 10 gun stores in unincorporated areas. Combs said the 500-foot limits in the ordinance would prohibit additional stores.
The suit was filed by three businessmen who wanted to open a gun shop near San Leandro, 446 feet away from the nearest home on the other side of Interstate 880. County officials turned them down.
The case is one of many pending in federal courts over the meaning of the 2008 Supreme Court decision that declared a constitutional right to possess firearms at home for self-defense.
One section of the opinion by the late Justice Antonin Scalia said that “laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” remained “presumptively lawful,” requiring opponents to show why the regulations interfered with gun ownership.
Goldman said the ruling means a county can restrict gun store locations and can’t be sued under the Second Amendment as long as it doesn’t ban all gun sales. Combs countered that the Alameda County ordinance could eventually shut down existing stores as well. He noted that the same appeals court has upheld California’s requirement of a local license to carry a concealed handgun in public, a ruling that opponents want the Supreme Court to review.
“The Supreme Court is gong to have to be the final arbiter in cases like these,” Combs said. “It doesn’t appear that the Ninth Circuit believes the Second Amendment means what it says.”
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com
