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Everytown for Gun Safety Applauds Federal Appeals Court for Rejecting Extremist Challenge to California Gun Laws

8.3.2018

NEW YORK – Everytown for Gun Safety, the country’s largest gun violence prevention organization, today applauded the opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Peña v. Becerra, a case challenging requirements under California’s Unsafe Handgun Act that new handguns offered for sale in California include microstamping technology as well as two safety features.

Everytown previously filed an amicus brief in the case, available here, which demonstrated that the Unsafe Handgun Act’s microstamping and safety requirements do not infringe on the challengers’ Second Amendment self-defense rights and should be upheld.

STATEMENT FROM ERIC TIRSCHWELL, LITIGATION DIRECTOR FOR EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY:

“As courts across the country have recognized, states have broad authority to pass public safety laws to protect their citizens. Today’s ruling is a win for public safety in California, and it’s the latest evidence that the gun lobby’s extremist arguments don’t hold up in the courtroom.

The Ninth Circuit’s decision to uphold the law based on its impact on public safety is an important example of why the Senate should reject Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Judge Kavanaugh’s dangerous approach to the Second Amendment rejects considerations of public safety and instead looks only to a law’s historical pedigree, putting him far outside the mainstream of courts across the country.”