Appeals Court Rules 2nd Amendment Allows Open Carry of Guns
From Associated Press, July 24, 2018 (excerpt)
...The federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Second Amendment protects the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Hawaii officials had violated George Young's rights when he was denied a permit to openly carry a loaded gun in public to protect himself.
The decision reversed a lower court ruling that sided with officials who said the amendment only applied to guns kept in homes….
Judge Richard Clifton noted in his dissent that several appeals courts have come down on different sides of whether guns can be openly carried in public, saying: "There is no single voice on this question." He suggested the Supreme Court will inevitably have to weigh in….
read … Appeals Court Rules 2nd Amendment Allows Open Carry of Guns
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Excerpts from Young v State of Hawaii 9th Circuit Court Opinion Filed July 24, 2018
The panel reversed the district court’s dismissal of claims brought against the County of Hawaii, dismissed plaintiff’s appeal as to the State of Hawaii, and remanded, in plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleging that the denial of his application for a handgun license violated his Second Amendment right to carry a loaded firearm in public for self defense. …
…the panel stated that it was unpersuaded by the County’s and the State’s argument that the Second Amendment only has force within the home. The panel stated that once identified as an individual right focused on self-defense, the right to bear arms must guarantee some right to self-defense in public. The panel held that because Hawaii law restricted plaintiff in exercising the right to carry a firearm openly, it burdened conduct protected by the Second Amendment….
The County of Hawaii’s Chief of Police denied plaintiff’s application to carry a handgun because he failed to satisfy Hawaii’s licensing requirements, as set forth in section 134-9 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Section 134-9 acts as a limited exception to the State of Hawaii’s “Place[s] to Keep” statutes, which generally require that gun owners keep their firearms at their “place of business, residence, or sojourn.” H.R.S. §§ 134-23, 134-24, 134-25. The exception allows citizens to obtain a license to carry a loaded handgun in public, either concealed or openly, under certain circumstances. Plaintiff alleged that the County violated the Second Amendment by enforcing against him the State’s limitations in section 134-9 on the open carry of firearms to those “engaged in the protection of life and property” and on the concealed carry of firearms to those who can demonstrate an “exceptional case.”
…the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. We would thus flout the Constitution if we were to hold that, “in regulating the manner of bearing arms, the authority of [the State] has no other limit than its own discretion.” Reid, 1 Ala. at 616. While many respectable scholars and activists might find virtue in a firearms-carry regime that restricts the right to a privileged few, “the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table….
Young has indeed stated a claim that section 134-9’s limitations on the issuance of open carry licenses violate the Second Amendment….
PDF: Court Opinion and Dissent
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