Everytown for Gun Safety Applauds Announcement That Supreme Court Will Let Stand Ninth Circuit Ruling That Upheld San Diego’s Concealed Carry Permit Policy

NEW YORK – Everytown for Gun Safety, the country’s largest gun violence prevention organization, this morning applauded the announcement by the Supreme Court of the United States that it will let stand the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Peruta v. County of San Diego. The Supreme Court’s decision not to grant a writ of certiorari leaves in place the 2016 decision in which the Ninth Circuit upheld San Diego’s requirement that a member of the public needs a good cause to carry a concealed handgun in public. As a result, San Diego’s permitting standards will remain intact.

Everytown’s amicus brief in the case, filed 2015 in the Ninth Circuit, is available here.

“The Supreme Court’s decision not to review Peruta v. County of San Diego is a win for gun safety,” said Eric Tirschwell, litigation director for Everytown for Gun Safety. “The Peruta decision is consistent with four other federal appeals courts all across the country that have found the Second Amendment leaves plenty of room for states and localities to make their own determinations about who can carry a concealed handgun in public.”

The high court’s decision to let the Ninth Circuit opinion stand in Peruta v. County of San Diego came despite urging from the gun lobby to grant review in the case and is the latest blow to the gun lobby’s efforts to gut American public safety laws. Nevertheless, these efforts continue in Congress, where the gun lobby’s top priority, “Concealed Carry Reciprocity,” would force states and local governments across the country to recognize the concealed carry standards of every other state, no matter how weak – or nonexistent – the standards are. In San Diego’s case, “Concealed Carry Reciprocity” would mean the county would have to allow someone to carry a concealed gun as long as the person was allowed to carry in another state, even though such a person might not meet San Diego’s constitutional permit requirements, have a record of violent conduct, or not have basic firearm safety training.

Peruta v. County of San Diego is a challenge to the requirement by San Diego and Yolo counties that applicants for a concealed carry permit show “good cause” prior to being issued a concealed carry permit. San Diego and Yolo counties have both interpreted “good cause” to mean a specific need beyond a generalized need for self-defense. An en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit rejected this challenge after analyzing hundreds of years of English and American history and concluding that the Second Amendment does not apply to the carrying of concealed weapons. Plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to review the decision, and today the high court declined to do so, opting to let the Ninth Circuit opinion stand. Everytown’s amicus brief on the case, filed in the Ninth Circuit, is available here.

Today’s announcement follows a number of recent court wins for gun safety; a list of those cases is available here.