As difficult as it may be for some of you to believe, there are people on this planet who think I am “prickly.” Well, to be fair, they have used a wide variety of adjectives to describe me other than prickly but no matter.
If the Second Amendment means anything to you then you have read or heard that on June 9, 2016 a limited en banc panel (eleven circuit judges) of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that there is no right to concealed carry anywhere in public.
The decision effectively ended in this circuit the quest of the so-called gun-rights groups to uphold California’s and Hawaii’s bans on openly carrying firearms and to get concealed carry permits in exchange for a ban on what has always been the Second Amendment right – To openly carry firearms in public for the purpose of self-defense.
Well, today, June 23, 2016, was the deadline for the NRA, CRPA, SAF and CalGuns.nuts lawyers to file their petitions to have their cases reheard before a full en banc panel (currently 28 judges) of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The NRA/CRPA petition was the usual, old, moldy swill. The NRA petition whined and whined about how terrible it would be if California’s Open Carry bans were to be struck down.
Lest we forget, the NRA claims, in public, to have always been in the forefront of the fight for Open Carry. In court the NRA argues to uphold bans on Open Carry.
If you still support the NRA after learning this then you are a vile person, but I digress.
The winner of the “Holy Sh*t!” prize goes to Alan Gura, the lead attorney in the Richards v. Prieto concealed carry lawsuit. In his petition, on page 11, he compares judges who uphold concealed carry bans to judges who look the other way while police murder people in the street.
There was never any chance of their petitions for a full court rehearing being granted. The best they could have hoped for was a circuit judge or two writing up a dissent to the full court to not rehear their cases. A little something extra they could staple to their cert petitions to the Supreme Court when the time comes.
Look, judges disagree in their interpretations of the law but that doesn’t keep them from being friends. US Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Ginsberg were extremely close friends right up to Justice Scalia’s death but that did not keep them from being far apart in their opinions on how cases should be decided.
The SAF, CalGuns.nuts attorney Alan Gura just condemned the character of every judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals who doesn’t believe that there is a right to concealed carry or who feel bound to obey longstanding US Supreme Court precedents upholding bans on concealed carry. I suspect that each of these judges have fellow judges on the court who are their friends even if they don’t agree.
The last time petitions for a (limited) en banc hearing were filed in these two cases (Peruta v. San Diego and Richards v. Prieto) it took four months for the court to decide whether or not to grant the Attorney General’s petition.
Let us hope that this time it doesn’t take quite as long to decide (and deny) the petitions for rehearing the two concealed carry cases before the entire court.
My California Open Carry lawsuit will have to be delayed yet again because of these en banc petitions. But the so called gun-rights groups are going to fight against Open Carry until the end and these petitions have the side benefit (to them) of delaying my appeal even longer.
Please Donate and Help Defray the Costs of My California Open Carry Lawsuit. Unlike the NRA and the so-called gun-rights groups, my lawsuit has ALWAYS claimed that Open Carry is the right guaranteed by the Second Amendment and that it is concealed carry which can be banned.
Charles Nichols – President of California Right To Carry
Paypal, MC, Visa, etc -> http://tinyurl.com/pc12031lawsuit
MC, Visa, etc -> https://secure.piryx.com/donate/oQHhxxyh/CaliforniaRightToCarry/
Bitcoins -> 1AdtAJfcdBkA777fwtVhmCwSwCKGTFrgGz
